Source: Dark Reading
Author: Erich Kron
URL: https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/top-10-most-probable-ways-company-can-be-hacked
## ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY:
A data-driven cybersecurity strategy prioritizes addressing root causes of attacks rather than symptoms, ensuring proactive defense against evolving cyber threats.
## MAIN POINTS:
1. A data-driven cybersecurity strategy relies on real data, not intuition, to protect critical assets.
2. Understanding attack root causes prevents vulnerabilities rather than just mitigating attack symptoms.
3. Social engineering is the primary attack method, exploiting human behavior through phishing, vishing, and other deceptive techniques.
4. Programming bugs create exploitable security weaknesses, often due to coding errors or outdated software.
5. Authentication attacks exploit credential vulnerabilities using brute force, MFA bypass, and credential stuffing.
6. Malicious scripting abuses legitimate programming tools like PowerShell to execute harmful actions.
7. Human errors and misconfigurations, such as overly permissive permissions, frequently lead to security breaches.
8. Eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks intercept and manipulate sensitive communications.
9. Brute-force attacks leverage computing power to crack weak passwords and encryption keys.
10. Insider threats pose significant risks as they originate from trusted individuals with legitimate access.
## TAKEAWAYS:
1. Prioritize addressing root causes like social engineering and unpatched software over reacting to attack symptoms.
2. Focus cybersecurity efforts on protecting the most critical assets and identifying likely attack vectors.
3. Human error and misconfigurations remain major security risks that require training and strict access controls.
4. Security teams must avoid distraction from news-driven threats and instead rely on their own risk assessments.
5. Preventing future attacks demands continuous evaluation of vulnerabilities rather than just responding to incidents.