What Is an Attack Vector? 8 Common Attack Vectors To Avoid

Updated on September 27, 2024.

An attack vector, also called a threat vector, are all the potential ways cybercriminals can gain access to an organization’s network or systems. Some common types of attack vectors that organizations need to defend against include weak and compromised credentials, social engineering attacks, insider threats, unpatched software, lack of encryption and misconfigurations. Organizations must identify all of the potential attack vectors and protect their network against them to avoid security breaches.

Continue reading to learn more about attack vectors, eight common examples of attack vectors and how to secure your organization against them.

Attack vector vs attack surface: What’s the difference?

An attack vector refers to the specific method that a cybercriminal uses to gain unauthorized access to an organization’s systems. The sum of attack vectors makes up an organization’s attack surface, and the larger the attack surface is, the more vulnerable an organization is to cybercriminals gaining unauthorized access. Once cybercriminals have gained unauthorized access, they can infect the network with malware, steal sensitive data and disrupt the organization’s operations.

8 common attack vector examples

Here are eight examples of the most common attack vectors.

1. Weak and compromised credentials

Weak and compromised credentials are one of the primary attack vectors used by cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to an organization’s network. Cybercriminals can easily crack weak passwords using password attacks such as brute force and credential stuffing. They can also use already compromised credentials to gain unauthorized access to the network.

2. Malware

Malware is malicious software that cybercriminals use to infect an organization’s network to cause damage and steal their sensitive data. Cybercriminals secretly install malware by exploiting security vulnerabilities or tricking people into installing malware through phishing attacks. 

3. Social engineering

Social engineering is a psychological manipulation technique used by threat actors to get victims to reveal their private information. Cybercriminals use social engineering attacks to trick employees into giving up sensitive information such as passwords. 

The most common form of social engineering that cybercriminals use is phishing. Phishing is when cybercriminals impersonate a familiar face to trick victims into revealing personal or confidential information. Cybercriminals send emails or text messages with malicious attachments or links for victims to click on. When the victim clicks on the malicious link, they are taken to a spoofed website that either downloads malware onto their device or prompts them to enter personal data such as credit card numbers or login credentials.

4. Insider threats

Insider threats are cyber threats that come from within an organization. They occur when current or former employees, partners, contractors or vendors cause sensitive data and systems to become compromised, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Malicious insider threats attempt to intentionally sabotage the organization by leaking or stealing its sensitive data. Threat actors may also exploit negligent insiders who are careless about cybersecurity best practices. Negligent insiders may make a human error that leads to a data breach such as falling for a phishing attack.

5. Unpatched software

Cybercriminals often exploit vulnerabilities found within outdated software and systems to gain unauthorized access to an organization or individual’s device. If organizations are running unpatched software, then cybercriminals can use it as an attack vector to compromise an organization’s network and steal sensitive data.

6. Lack of encryption

Encryption is the process of converting data from a readable format known as plaintext into an unreadable format known as ciphertext. Ciphertext consists of blocks of random characters that cannot be read unless it is decrypted with an encryption key back into plaintext. Encryption helps protect sensitive data in transit and at rest from getting stolen, read or altered by unauthorized users. 

A lack of encryption often results in data being transmitted in plaintext which cybercriminals can read and steal through Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks. MITM attacks are when cybercriminals intercept data from two exchanging parties. Often, cybercriminals rely on unencrypted network connections to eavesdrop, steal and alter any connected internet traffic.

7. DDoS attacks

A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack is a cyber attack that tries to slow down or crash a targeted server by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. Cybercriminals often use infected devices known as bots to execute DDoS attacks. They use the bots to exploit the limited bandwidth of an organization’s network server to disrupt its normal operations. 

8. Misconfigurations

Organizations may run into an issue in which their systems are too complex, leaving their network with vulnerable settings and disparate security controls. Systems that are manually configured can have errors and gaps if not configured properly. Cybercriminals can exploit misconfigurations to gain unauthorized access to an organization’s network. 

How organizations can stay protected against attack vectors

Here are a few tools and best practices organizations can implement to protect against common attack vectors. 

Invest in cybersecurity solutions

Organizations need to invest in cybersecurity solutions to help them secure against attack vectors and prevent cybercriminals from exploiting them. Here are some cybersecurity solutions organizations should consider:

• Privileged Access Management (PAM): PAM solutions secure and manage accounts that have access to highly sensitive systems and data. With a PAM solution, organizations have full visibility into who is accessing their entire infrastructure, when they’re accessing it and what they do, making it easy for IT admins to identify malicious activity within their network.
• Antivirus software: Antivirus detects, prevents and removes known malware from devices before they’re able to get installed.
• Virtual Private Network (VPN): VPNs secure your internet connection and online privacy by masking your IP address and encrypting your internet connection. A VPN helps users remain anonymous online and ensures their internet traffic is unreadable by unauthorized users, helping organizations stay protected against MITM attacks.

Educate employees about cybersecurity best practices

Negligent employees are one of the most common attack vectors cybercriminals exploit. Providing employees with regular security training on cybersecurity best practices can help lower the success rate of cybercriminals successfully exploiting them. 

Some best practices employees should be trained on include the following:

• Using strong and unique passwords for every account
• Enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) whenever it’s available
• Avoiding oversharing on social media
• Recognizing and avoiding social engineering attacks
• Using secure password-sharing and storage methods
• Avoiding public WiFi networks

Keep software up to date

Every device, software or app used at your organization should remain up to date to avoid them from being exploited. Software updates patch most security flaws and bugs that cybercriminals exploit and add new security features that better protect your organization. Encourage employees to keep their work devices up to date, as well as the software they use. 

Implement least privilege access

Least privilege access is a cybersecurity principle that gives users and machines just enough network access to do their jobs, and no more. By implementing least privilege access, organizations can reduce the number of attack vectors cybercriminals can exploit. Least privilege access limits what resources users can access. If a threat actor were to infiltrate the organization’s network, they would be limited to the levels of access of the machine or account they compromised, preventing lateral movement within the network. PAM solutions make implementing least privilege access seamless for organizations. 

Secure common attack vectors with KeeperPAM®

The best way to secure your organization’s attack vectors is with a PAM solution. PAM allows organizations to implement least privilege access and have full visibility into their entire infrastructure. 

KeeperPAM is a zero-trust and zero-knowledge privileged access management solution that combines Keeper Enterprise Password Manager , Keeper Secrets Manager® and Keeper Connection Manager® all in one unified platform. With KeeperPAM, organizations can secure and control passwords, secrets, connections and privileges making it simple to reduce your organization’s attack surface. 

Learn more about how KeeperPAM can help secure your organization by requesting a demo today.