Rise in Credential Theft and Vulnerability Exploitation Dominates Cyber Threats in 2024

Recent reports highlight a significant shift in cyberattack strategies, with vulnerability exploitation and credential theft now accounting for nearly half of all initial access incidents. According to Mandiant’s M-Trends 2025 report, credential theft surged to 16% of cases, driven by the proliferation of infostealers, while exploits remained the top vector at 33%¹. This trend reflects broader changes in adversary tactics, including a decline in phishing (down to 14%) and a rise in AI-driven attacks.

Key Findings from Industry Reports

The M-Trends 2025 report, published by Mandiant and Google Cloud, reveals that financial services, business services, and high-tech industries are the most targeted sectors, accounting for 39.1% of incidents¹. The global median dwell time increased to 11 days, with externally reported cases taking 26 days to detect. Meanwhile, IBM’s X-Force Threat Index 2025 notes an 84% increase in infostealer deployments via phishing, with credential harvesting now impacting 28% of victims².

Notable vulnerabilities exploited include FortiManager’s CVE-2024-47575 and Roundcube’s CVE-2023-43770, both actively weaponized in attacks³. The acceleration of exploitation timelines is alarming: 25% of CVEs are exploited on the same day as disclosure, and 75% within 19 days⁴.

Actionable Recommendations for Defense

To mitigate these risks, organizations should prioritize:

Patch management: Immediate remediation for critical vulnerabilities like FortiManager and Roundcube.
Credential security: Enforce FIDO2 multi-factor authentication (MFA) and monitor dark web leaks.
Threat hunting: Proactively search for indicators of compromise (IOCs) linked to infostealers.

Mandiant also recommends stricter access controls to reduce insider threats, which now account for 5% of incidents, partly due to North Korean IT worker scams³.

Emerging Threats and Training Gaps

AI-driven attacks are escalating, with Iranian state actors using ChatGPT to plan industrial control system (ICS) attacks⁵. The healthcare sector faces heightened espionage motives, with 16% of breaches attributed to state-sponsored actors⁶.

To address skill shortages, programs like the MCSI MVRE Certification offer cost-effective, hands-on training in vulnerability research. Priced at $450, the course includes 600+ hours of labs—11 times more than traditional offerings like SANS SEC760⁷.

Conclusion

The 2024–2025 threat landscape underscores the need for faster response times and improved credential hygiene. Organizations must adapt to AI-augmented attacks and invest in practical training to counter advanced exploitation techniques.