When secrets that were not intended to be made publicly available are discovered, they can be used by malicious characters to compromise systems and devices that would otherwise be considered secure. It would be like leaving your house key laying around outside your front door for anyone to find and use as they see fit. What’s worse is that many of these now accessible systems store confidential information that can be exposed. This could be things like health records, financial information or other personally identifiable information. That alone is a good cause for concern, but of course, there’s more.

Secure IP traffic is made possible via private and public key pairs. Public keys get exchanged, hashed together with private keys, and used for trusted communication between the two systems. It’s the security that the private key holder can only provide the correct hash that ensures you are in communication with the right entity. Once the private key is shared, anyone can use it to create a trusted connection with you, assuming the identity of an otherwise trusted source. Once that trust is compromised, any bad actor can gain access to these systems, distribute malicious code, or eavesdrop on the communication between parties.