5 Most Common Security Attack Methods in 2024: Mandiant’s M-Trends Report

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Infostealer malware is on the rise, according to the 2025 cybersecurity M-Trends report from Mandiant. Unsecured data repositories and risky cloud migrations were also security weak points in 2024 for the organizations Mandiant surveyed in its 16th annual M-Trends report.

How attackers breached organizations in 2024

Most common attack methods

The most common methods attackers used to breach organizations in 2024 were:

• Exploits (33%).
• Stolen credentials (16%).
• Email phishing (14%).
• Web compromise (9%).
• Prior compromise (8%).

The rate of exploits has declined slightly since 2023, when exploits were the initial vector for 38% of intrusions. Mandiant noted attackers who might otherwise start with email phishing can obtain the same credentials elsewhere, such as in mass leaks or cybercrime ...