When we talk about credential security, the focus is usually on preventing breaches. This makes sense, as IBM’s 2025 Cost of Data Breach Report puts the average cost of a breach at $4.4 million. Avoiding even one major incident is enough to justify most security investments, but this headline number obscures a more persistent problem caused by repeated credential incidents.
Account lockouts and compromised credentials don’t make the news. These manifest as repeated helpdesk tickets, interrupted workflows, and time taken away from higher-value work. Individual incidents may seem minor individually, but collectively they place an ongoing strain on IT teams and the wider business.
The real cost isn’t just the breaches you prevent, but also the day-to-day disruptions you’re already dealing with.
Repeated Incidents Equal Repeated Costs
If your organization is experiencing credential-based attacks or repeated account breaches, the obvious response is to tighten your password policies. However, many organizations struggle with balancing security and usability. And when something goes wrong, a call is made to the help desk.
Forrester estimates that password resets account for up to 30% of all helpdesk tickets, costing approximately $70 per incident when factoring in staff time and lost productivity. For medium-sized organizations, this represents significant ongoing operational costs directly related to credential incidents.
When all this chaos piles up, IT teams spend most of their time putting out fires and end users lose momentum. Organizations absorb costs in ways that are often overlooked but difficult to eliminate.
How poor password policies contribute to credential incidents
Ambiguous error messages such as “complexity requirements not met” leave users guessing. What rules did they break? What are they missing? After a few failed attempts, most users stop trying to understand the policy and start looking for the quickest way to get through it.
People resort to reusing old passwords with slight adjustments or storing credentials in insecure ways just to avoid going through this process again. None of these are malicious, but they increase the likelihood of repeated credential-related incidents, from lockouts to account compromises.
Without any form of compromised password screening, organizations rely on time-based resets to manage risk. However, just because your password is old doesn’t mean it’s no longer secure. Exposure can be dangerous.
Even with a short expiration date, users can continue logging in using credentials that were already compromised in a breach. These accounts are vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited, but without visibility you are effectively leaving it to chance.
At the same time, IT teams are still dealing with the operational impact of unnecessary resets without addressing the underlying risks. Without the ability to detect compromised credentials, organizations end up managing symptoms rather than root causes, and the cycle of incidents continues.
This is where tools like Specops Password Policy come in handy. Compromised Password Protection continuously scans user accounts against a database of over 5.8 billion compromised passwords. Customizable alerts prompt users to reset their passwords if they appear in the database, reducing the opportunity for attackers to misuse these credentials.
Specops password policy
Composite password problems due to mandatory periodic resets
For many years, forced password resets have been treated as a basic security measure. In fact, it tends to cause more problems than it solves.
If users are required to change their passwords every 60 or 90 days, the behavior becomes predictable. People change existing passwords little by little, or choose ones that are easy to remember under time constraints. As a result, credentials become weaker rather than stronger.
In addition to creating weak passwords, these fixed expiration intervals regularly interrupt your workday. Every reset can result in a lockout, increasing the pile of helpdesk tickets that drain your resources without actually improving your security posture.
This is why guidance from organizations such as NIST has shifted from mandating periodic changes to resetting passwords only when there is evidence of compromise. While removing password resets completely requires careful consideration, the updated guidance should make you reconsider any expiration dates.
Strong password policies set the baseline for identity security
It’s easy to treat passwords as a traditional problem that should be minimized as we move to passwordless authentication. However, passwords still support identity security. If that foundation is weak, the effects will be felt everywhere.
Compromised or simple passwords pose a risk to the identity layer, allowing attackers to gain legitimate access and move laterally without immediate warning.
By enforcing robust, user-friendly requirements and identifying exposed credentials early, you can reduce the number of vulnerable entry points across your environment. This becomes especially important as organizations evolve their authentication strategies.
Specops Breached Password Protection continuously blocks over 5 billion leaked passwords
Passwordless still relies on strong underlying credentials. Without a solid baseline, you risk introducing existing weaknesses into the new system.
Fewer compromised accounts means fewer incidents, less time spent on remediation, and less disruption to daily operations.
Reduce costs from repeated credential incidents
Strong password management helps reduce risk. But the real operational payoff lies in reducing the time and resources spent resolving constant incidents across the organization.
When you factor in fewer lockouts, fewer reset requests, and less time spent handling compromised credentials, you can see the impact in reducing daily disruption for both IT teams and end users.
If recurring credential incidents are becoming too common in your environment, it’s worth taking a closer look.
Want to see how Specops can help strengthen your identity security? Schedule a demo to see our solution in action.
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