This blog was written by David Gormley, Cloud Security Product Marketing Manager at Cisco.

Cybercriminals have been refining their strategies and tactics for over twenty years and attacks have been getting more sophisticated. A successful cyberattack often involves a multi-step, coordinated effort. Research on successful breaches shows that hackers are very thorough with the information they collect and the comprehensive plans they execute to understand the environment, gain access, infect, move laterally, escalate privileges and steal data.

An attack typically includes at least some of the following steps:

• reconnaissance activities to find attractive targets
• scanning for weaknesses that present a good entry point
• stealing credentials
• gaining access and privileges within the environment
• accessing and exfiltrating data
• hiding past actions and ongoing presence

This whole process is sometime called the