Table of contents
What are cyber threats?
What are the most common types of cyberattacks?
What are data breaches?
How do attackers gain access to computer networks?
What are real-world examples of cyber threats?
How can businesses manage cybersecurity risks?
How can organizations use the NIST Risk Management Framework?
How does Acronis Cyber Protect help?
FAQ
Sources
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Quick definition: Cybersecurity threats are potential attacks that aim to gain unauthorized access to a network, steal or destroy data or disrupt business operations and critical infrastructure.
Key takeaways:
- Vulnerability exploitation overtook credential-based attacks as the top single initial access vector in 2025, present in 31% of breaches, though phishing and credential abuse combined remain comparable in scale (Verizon, 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report).
- Third-party and supply chain involvement was present in 48% of breaches in the same period, up sharply from prior years.
- The human element, phishing, social engineering and simple error, was still present in 62% of breaches.
- Ransomware losses reported to the FBI reached $32.3 million in 2025, a 259% increase over 2024, and that figure captures only direct reported losses, not downtime or recovery costs.
- Generative AI was a factor in 16% of breaches, most commonly used to accelerate phishing and deepfake-based social engineering (IBM, Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025).
- Google’s Threat Intelligence Group tracked 90 zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in the wild in 2025, with enterprise technology now accounting for a record 48% of them.
Organizations of all sizes can fall victim to modern cyberthreats. A malicious actor can have various motives for carrying out an attack, though financial gain remains the most common. Depending on a company’s disaster recovery posture, a cyberattack can significantly affect business continuity, revenue and client trust.
Tracking and studying evolving cyberthreats is critical to a stronger cybersecurity strategy. This article covers the most common types of cyberthreats, the techniques threat actors use to infiltrate company networks and the practices that strengthen company defenses.
What are cyber threats?
Cyberthreats refer to any potentially malicious activity that aims to gain unauthorized access to a network to steal sensitive data, disrupt business operations or damage critical infrastructure and information.
Cyberthreats can originate from numerous actors: hackers, hacktivists, hostile nation-states, corporate spies, criminal organizations, terrorist groups or disgruntled insiders.
A cyberattacker can use an employee’s or a company’s sensitive data to gain access to financial accounts, or to delete, corrupt or steal data for personal gain. Left unaddressed, cyberthreats can corrupt a company’s computer network, halt business processes and cause indefinite downtime.
What are the most common types of cyberattacks?
Cybersecurity threats come in many forms, which is why studying potential dangers and preparing to combat them is critical. The Acronis Global Cyber Threat Catalog covers many of these in far more depth; this section summarizes the ones every organization should recognize.
What is a malware attack?
Malware, short for malicious software, is software specifically designed to inject malicious code into a target device or network and enable further harmful actions, such as corrupting sensitive data or taking over a system.
What is a ransomware attack?
Ransomware is a type of malware attack that blocks access to computer systems or data until a ransom is paid. Such attacks are usually unleashed by downloading malware onto the target system. Some ransomware attacks steal data before encrypting the target system, which classifies them as data breaches as well.
Ransomware remains one of the costliest categories of cybercrime: the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 3,611 ransomware complaints in 2025, with reported losses of $32.3 million, a 259% increase from 2024’s $12.5 million (FBI, 2025 Internet Crime Report). Those figures cover only direct reported losses; they exclude downtime, remediation and reputational costs.
What is a phishing attack?
Phishing attacks are emails, phone calls, text messages or websites designed to trick users into downloading malware (a drive-by download attack), sharing sensitive or personally identifiable information (Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, login credentials) or taking other actions that expose the victim or their company to cyberthreats.
A successful phishing attack can lead to identity theft, ransomware, data breaches, credit card fraud and financial losses for the organization. The five most common types are email phishing, spear phishing, smishing, whaling and angler phishing.
What is an advanced persistent threat (APT)?
An advanced persistent threat (APT) is an increasingly sophisticated cyberattack in which cybercriminals establish an undetected presence in a system or network to steal information over a prolonged period. APT attacks are meticulously planned to target a specific organization, bypass existing security controls and remain unnoticed for as long as possible.
APT attacks typically require far more customization than traditional cyberattacks. Attackers are usually experienced teams of cybercriminals with significant funding pursuing high-value targets, and they invest considerable time researching potential entry points within the organization. The four general motivations behind APTs are cyberespionage (including theft of state secrets or intellectual property), hacktivism, financially motivated eCrime and data or infrastructure destruction.
What is a social engineering attack?
A social engineering attack aims to trick users into taking an action by playing on their emotions and decision-making process. Most social engineering attacks involve psychological manipulation to fool employees into handing over sensitive information. Attackers typically use email, social media or other communication channels to invoke urgency or fear so the victim reveals critical data, clicks a malicious link or executes malicious code.
What is a DNS attack?
A Domain Name System (DNS) attack occurs when cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in a server’s DNS. DNS uses a resolver to translate user-friendly domain names into IP addresses a machine can read.
The resolver first queries its local cache for the domain name and IP address. If it cannot locate the required record, it queries other DNS servers; if that also fails, it looks for the DNS server holding the canonical mapping for the domain. Once it locates the correct IP address, it returns that address to the requesting program and caches it for future use.
DNS attacks typically exploit the plaintext communication between users and DNS servers. Another common technique is logging in to a DNS provider’s website with stolen credentials and redirecting DNS records.
What is a DoS or DDoS attack?
A denial-of-service (DoS) attack aims to shut down a machine, system or network, making it inaccessible to its intended users. DoS attacks flood the target with traffic or send specifically crafted data to trigger a crash; both approaches block access for legitimate users. Even though DoS attacks do not usually involve data theft, they can cost a company significant time and money to restore normal operations.
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack follows a similar pattern but uses multiple compromised systems, computers, IoT devices or other network resources, to deliver attack traffic at greater scale.
What is intellectual property (IP) theft?
Intellectual property theft refers to the unauthorized exploitation or theft of ideas, creative works, trade secrets and other confidential information protected under IP law, including trademark, copyright and patent infringement.
IP theft can affect individuals, small and midsize businesses and global enterprises alike, and it can threaten national security. Because it can undermine economic growth and innovation, IP protection is a priority for organizations of every size.
What are data breaches?
A data breach is a security incident in which an unauthorized party gains control over sensitive or confidential information: personal data such as Social Security numbers, bank account details or health care records; or corporate assets such as client data records, financial information and intellectual property.
“Data breach” is often used interchangeably with “cyberattack,” but the two are not the same. Not all data breaches are cyberattacks, and not all cyberattacks are data breaches. An attack becomes a breach when it compromises data confidentiality. A DDoS attack that disrupts network traffic, for example, is not considered a breach, while malware designed to steal or destroy data on a company network is. The same distinction applies to the physical theft of storage media, external hard drives, USB drives and even paper files containing sensitive information.
How do attackers gain access to computer networks?
Numerous exploits can enable cyberattacks on a company network. Below are the most common approaches attackers use to penetrate system defenses.
What is a man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack?
A man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack occurs when threat actors secretly intercept and relay messages between two authorized parties, making each believe they are communicating directly with the other. This can be categorized as eavesdropping, in which the attacker intercepts and controls the entire conversation.
MiTM attacks give the attacker the ability to capture and manipulate sensitive personal information, including login credentials, credit card numbers and account details, in real time, posing a significant threat to company networks.
What are third-party vulnerabilities?
Third-party vulnerabilities enter an organization’s ecosystem or supply chain through external parties: suppliers, vendors, contractors, partners or service providers who have access to internal company or client data, processes, systems or other critical infrastructure.
What is a SQL injection attack?
SQL injection (SQLi) is a vulnerability that allows attackers to interfere with an application’s queries to its database. Such attacks typically let the threat actor view confidential data, including user account data or other sensitive information the application can access. In most cases, attackers can also modify, corrupt or delete that data, causing persistent changes to the application’s behavior or content. In some scenarios, attackers escalate an SQL injection attack to compromise the target server, compromise other key infrastructure or perform a DoS attack.
How do accidental actions by authorized users lead to breaches?
Employees can create insider risk without realizing it. Common accidental actions that lead to a data breach include:
- Mistyping an email address and accidentally sending sensitive business data to a competitor.
- Opening a phishing email attachment that contains a virus or malware.
- Unknowingly clicking a malicious hyperlink.
- Improperly disposing of sensitive documents.
Why is unpatched software a security risk?
Unpatched software contains known vulnerabilities that let attackers exploit weaknesses and deploy malicious code. Attackers often probe company software specifically to find unpatched systems and attack them directly or indirectly.
What is a zero-day exploit?
A zero-day vulnerability is a software flaw discovered by malicious actors before the software vendor becomes aware of it. Because the developer does not know about the vulnerability, no patch exists yet. A zero-day exploit leverages that vulnerability, leaving vendors and companies with zero days to react before the flaw is used against them, hence the name. Such attacks can cause significant damage until the vulnerability is remediated.
Zero-day exploitation remains a persistent, high-value threat: Google’s Threat Intelligence Group tracked 90 zero-day vulnerabilities actively exploited in the wild in 2025, up from 78 in 2024, with enterprise technology accounting for 48% of them, a record share.
How are attackers using generative AI?
Attackers use machine-learning methods, including generative adversarial networks and reinforcement learning, to build more sophisticated cyberthreats capable of bypassing traditional defenses more easily. Through generative AI tools, cybercriminals can write more convincing malicious code, generate AI-powered, personalized phishing emails, produce deepfake content, interfere with ML-based threat detection, crack CAPTCHAs and accelerate password-guessing and brute-force attacks.
This is no longer a hypothetical concern: AI was a factor in 16% of data breaches in 2025, most commonly used for phishing (37% of AI-related incidents) and deepfake impersonation (35%), according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025. Separately, the FBI’s IC3 logged more than 22,000 AI-related fraud complaints in 2025, totaling nearly $900 million in reported losses, the first year the agency tracked AI as a distinct category.
What is a supply chain attack?
Supply chain attacks occur when attackers use an outside provider with access to target systems or data to infiltrate critical infrastructure. Because the outside party already has access to company applications, sensitive data and networks, attackers can breach the third party’s defenses to reach the ultimate target more easily.
Third-party involvement in breaches has become significantly more common: it was present in 48% of breaches in the most recent Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, a sharp increase from prior years, making vendor and partner risk one of the fastest-growing categories in the threat landscape.
What is data manipulation?
Data manipulation is a next-generation cyberthreat. Instead of directly bypassing antivirus software, attackers make subtle, stealthy changes to target data for some effect or gain. Some threat actors manipulate data specifically to trigger events they can then capitalize on. The more sophisticated the fraud, the greater the chance it compromises data integrity without immediate detection.
What are real-world examples of cyber threats?
Two examples illustrate how cybersecurity threats turn into full-blown attacks.
IoT attacks: the Verkada hack
Key facts: March 2021; cloud video surveillance provider; approximately 150,000 cameras exposed; more than 100 employees held “Super Admin” access; source, Bloomberg and IPVM reporting.
The cloud-based video surveillance service Verkada was hacked in March 2021. Following the attack, threat actors accessed private client data through the Verkada software and gained access to roughly 150,000 cameras in hospitals, schools, factories, prisons and other institutions, using legitimate administrator credentials they found online.
More than 100 Verkada employees were later found to have held “Super Admin” privileges, which enabled access to thousands of client cameras, illustrating the risk that comes with large numbers of over-privileged user accounts.
BEC and phishing: Ubiquiti Networks
Key facts: Disclosed August 2015; American network technology company; $46.7 million transferred via fraudulent wire; $8.1 million recovered shortly after disclosure, with additional funds recovered later; source, company SEC filings and Krebs on Security reporting.
Ubiquiti Networks, an American network technology company, was the victim of a business email compromise (BEC) scheme in 2015. Cybercriminals impersonated an outside law firm and internal finance staff to target Ubiquiti’s finance department and trick employees into wire transferring a total of $46.7 million to overseas accounts. The company recovered $8.1 million shortly after discovering the fraud, with further amounts recovered later through legal action.
Following the incident, Ubiquiti’s chief accounting officer resigned, and external advisors and the company’s audit committee reported material weaknesses in the organization’s internal financial reporting controls. The case remains one of the most frequently cited examples of how a single compromised email thread can bypass technical security controls entirely.
How can businesses manage cybersecurity risks?
Even when they do not threaten national security, cybersecurity threats can severely affect an organization’s day-to-day operations, revenue and business continuity. To combat both external threats and insider risk, companies should build on a set of core practices:
Encrypt data and maintain regular backups. Storing critical data in plain text makes it easier for attackers to use it if they gain access. Encryption limits data access to users with the decryption key, so even a successful breach does not expose readable data; some encryption solutions also alert you to tampering attempts. Regular backups are just as critical: a cyberthreat that turns into a full data breach can mean permanent data loss unless a reliable, secure backup exists. Following a proven guideline such as the 3-2-1 backup rule, which calls for three copies of your data on two different media types with at least one copy stored offsite, reduces the risk that a single incident wipes out both production data and its backup.
Train employees regularly. Phishing emails remain a primary way for attackers to infiltrate company networks, and they are difficult to detect because they often look legitimate at first glance. Without adequate training, employees may click a malicious link, open a corrupted attachment or send sensitive information directly to an attacker. Regular cybersecurity awareness training helps employees recognize the most common threat types and the best ways to respond.
Keep systems and software updated. Patches add new features and functionality, but their most important job is closing the security flaws that attackers actively search for. Promptly applying updates counters malicious code that targets known weaknesses; a patch management solution can automate this process so critical updates deploy as soon as they are released.
Assess and monitor vendors. As covered above, threat actors can exploit vulnerabilities in a vendor’s environment to break through company defenses. Comprehensive vendor risk management helps mitigate third-party risk before an incident occurs, rather than relying solely on incident response after the fact.
Use strong, current passwords. Weak and reused passwords remain one of the easiest paths into a network for attackers. Current guidance from NIST Special Publication 800-63B Revision 4 favors password length over forced complexity: it recommends 15 or more characters for password-only authentication, drops mandatory composition rules and advises against periodic forced password changes unless there is evidence of compromise. Pair long, unique passwords with multifactor authentication (MFA), avoid password sharing so a single compromised device cannot cascade into a wider breach, and store all passwords in an encrypted format.
Minimize the attack surface. A network’s attack surface comprises every potential entry point an attacker could exploit: software, web applications, IoT devices, employees and more. There are three primary attack surface types. Physical attack surface includes company assets a hacker can reach with physical access to your offices. Digital attack surface includes internet-accessible assets not protected by a firewall, such as corporate servers, operating systems and outdated but still active assets like an old website. Social engineering attack surface, often overlooked, is where attackers exploit human psychology to manipulate employees into sharing sensitive information.
Strengthen physical security. Most cyber risk management strategies focus on the digital environment and neglect physical premises. Organizations should conduct regular security assessments of critical infrastructure to protect it from attackers attempting to gain physical access to offices.
Deploy a killswitch. A killswitch protects an organization against large-scale attacks by giving the IT security team the ability to shut down all systems as soon as they detect suspicious behavior, until the issue is resolved. Pairing this with comprehensive threat analysis, frequent server log inspection, regular cybersecurity framework audits and network forensic analysis tools strengthens overall detection and response.
Maintain reliable firewalls. A reliable firewall protects a network from brute-force attacks and limits the damage a successful intrusion can cause. Firewalls monitor network traffic to detect and flag suspicious activity that could compromise data integrity.
Build a robust cybersecurity policy. Comprehensive cybersecurity policies are integral to threat detection and breach prevention. A complete policy should cover disaster recovery, so all personnel know what to do during or after an attack and downtime stays minimal; security testing, which sets the frequency of cybersecurity tests so vulnerabilities are found before attackers find them; access control and management, which defines who can access sensitive information and reduces the risk of unauthorized access; and incident response, which documents the steps and responsibilities for responding to a data breach and reduces the company’s overall response time.
How can organizations use the NIST Risk Management Framework?
The NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) gives organizations a comprehensive, flexible, measurable seven-step process for information security and privacy risk management. NIST guidelines and standards support risk management programs that protect increasingly vulnerable systems, help prevent data breaches and align a cybersecurity strategy with Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) requirements.
- Prepare. Complete the essential activities and processes that get the organization ready for security and privacy risk management.
- Categorize. Categorize the target system and all data it processes, stores or transmits, based on a threat-impact analysis.
- Select. Select the required NIST SP 800-53 controls to protect the system, based on a comprehensive risk assessment.
- Implement. Implement the selected controls and document the deployment process.
- Assess. Assess whether the security controls are correctly in place, operating as expected and delivering the desired results.
- Authorize. Have senior officials authorize the system to operate, based on a risk-based analysis and decision.
- Monitor. Continuously monitor control implementation and identify potential risks to the protected system.
How does Acronis Cyber Protect help?
Acronis Cyber Protect offers cyber protection in a single solution: threat detection, data protection and backup and recovery are managed from one centralized dashboard, which simplifies a cybersecurity strategy that would otherwise require several separate tools.
Acronis Cyber Protect can safeguard Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android machines, and it can run in the Acronis Cloud to support hybrid, mobile and remote work environments. Its backup options reduce the operational burden of maintaining backup infrastructure on-premises, while cloud disaster recovery helps limit downtime and maintain business continuity if an attack does get through.
FAQ
What’s the difference between a cyberattack and a data breach?
A cyberattack is any malicious attempt to access, disrupt or damage a system. A data breach is a specific type of outcome in which unauthorized parties gain control over sensitive or confidential information. Not every cyberattack is a data breach (a DDoS attack disrupts availability without exposing data), and not every data breach starts with a technical cyberattack (a lost laptop or misdirected email can also be a breach).
What is the most common initial attack vector for data breaches today?
Vulnerability exploitation overtook credential-based attacks as the single most common initial access vector in 2025, present in 31% of breaches, according to Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report. Phishing and credential abuse combined remain a comparable share of overall identity-related access, so both technical patching and identity controls remain essential.
How much do ransomware incidents cost organizations?
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded $32.3 million in direct reported ransomware losses in 2025, up 259% from 2024, across 3,611 complaints. That figure reflects only reported ransom-related losses; it does not include downtime, remediation, legal costs or reputational damage, which are typically far larger than the ransom itself.
What is the NIST Risk Management Framework?
The NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) is a seven-step process, prepare, categorize, select, implement, assess, authorize and monitor, that organizations use to identify, manage and reduce information security and privacy risk in line with Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) requirements.
How is generative AI changing cybersecurity threats?
Generative AI lets attackers write more convincing phishing emails, produce deepfake audio and video for impersonation scams and accelerate password-guessing and malicious code development. AI was a factor in 16% of data breaches in 2025, most commonly for phishing and deepfake impersonation, according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025.
What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?
The 3-2-1 backup rule recommends keeping three total copies of your data, stored on two different types of media, with at least one copy kept offsite. This reduces the risk that a single event, such as ransomware, hardware failure or a physical disaster, destroys both your production data and its backup at the same time.
What is the difference between an advanced persistent threat and a typical cyberattack?
A typical cyberattack is usually opportunistic and short in duration. An advanced persistent threat (APT) is a sophisticated, well-funded campaign in which attackers deliberately establish a long-term, undetected presence inside a specific target’s network to steal information over an extended period, rather than executing a single, fast strike.
Sources
- Verizon. “2026 Data Breach Investigations Report.” 2026.
- IBM. “Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025.” 2025.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). “2025 Internet Crime Report.” April 2026.
- Google Threat Intelligence Group. “Look What You Made Us Patch: 2025 Zero-Days in Review.” 2026.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology. Special Publication 800-63B, Revision 4, “Digital Identity Guidelines: Authentication and Authenticator Management.” 2025.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology. Special Publication 800-37, Revision 2, “Risk Management Framework for Information Systems and Organizations.”
- Bloomberg and IPVM. Reporting on the Verkada breach. March 2021.
- Krebs on Security and Ubiquiti Networks Inc. SEC filings. Reporting on the Ubiquiti business email compromise incident. August 2015.
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