Post by QTS Global

Recent observations of the tactics used by cybercriminals reveal a significant shift in how breaches occur. Today's threat actors no longer need to exploit software vulnerabilities to gain access. Instead, they steal credentials, compromise authorization tokens, use voice phishing (vishing), or abuse legitimate access privileges. This is more than just another breach trend—it is evidence that identity has become the primary battleground in enterprise security. The alarming reality is that today's malicious actors don't have to break in; they just have to log in. Take the recent Salesforce-related incidents as an example. CRM data was extracted through public-facing portals, not because Salesforce itself was compromised, but because guest-user permissions and identity and access configurations were mismanaged. Weak MFA policies and limited visibility into abnormal user behavior created the opportunity. Identity-based attacks are particularly difficult to detect because they appear legitimate. Attackers use valid credentials, approved APIs, authorized applications, and trusted authentication paths, allowing malicious activity to blend into normal business operations. Organizations should begin shifting their security strategy from focusing primarily on malware and zero-day exploits to strengthening identity threat detection and response. Continuous identity monitoring, risk-based authentication, phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA), and the ability to detect abnormal identity behavior are becoming essential controls in today's threat landscape. Needless to say, complying and aligning with national cybersecurity regulations—including China's Cybersecurity Law (CSL), Data Security Law (DSL), and Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL)—will further strengthen an organization's IT ecosystem and significantly improve its cyber resilience.