The Cyber Threat Perspective

Hosts Brad Causey and Spencer Alessi break down the 2026 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, focusing on the findings that actually matter for IT and security teams.
The biggest surprise: vulnerability exploitation has overtaken stolen credentials as the top initial access vector, accounting for 31% of attacks, while credential abuse dropped to just 13%. This completely flips the script on years of "identity is the new perimeter" thinking.
Topics covered include:
Vulnerability explosion and remediation crisis: Why there are too many vulnerabilities and not enough time for patching, with only 26% of CISA KEV vulnerabilities fully remediated (down from 38%)
The patching time paradox: Median remediation time increased from 32 days to 43 days despite organizations initially getting faster at patching from 2022-2024
Web application sprawl: How the push to cloud and SaaS has created massive attack surfaces organizations don't own and can't patch
The top 4 initial access vectors: Vulnerability exploitation, phishing, credential abuse, and pretexting
Ransomware economics shifting: 48% of breaches involved ransomware, but 69% of victims didn't pay and median payments dropped to $139,875
Mobile phishing success: Mobile-centric phishing had 40% higher success rates than email phishing as users get better at spotting email threats
Social engineering evolution: The human element appeared in 62% of breaches, with pretexting requiring different countermeasures than traditional phishing
Shadow AI explosion: 45% of employees are regular AI users on corporate devices (up from 15%), with 67% using non-corporate accounts
AI data exfiltration: Shadow AI is now the third most common non-malicious insider risk, with source code being the top data type leaked
MCP and IDE extension risks: Real-world examples including PocketOS having their entire production database deleted by Claude connected to a railway CLI MCP
Brad and Spencer emphasize that while the threat landscape is shifting dramatically, the fundamentals still matter. Organizations need to get comfortable with not being able to patch everything and focus on what matters most.
Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
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Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.

We're re-releasing one of our most practical episodes this week — originally published November 2025, and still one of the best roadmap conversations we've had on the show.
Brad and Spencer share no-fluff advice for breaking into cybersecurity, whether you're switching careers, starting from scratch, or leveling up from a general IT role. They cover what employers actually look for, the fastest paths in, and what to skip.
If you're exploring a cybersecurity career, or know someone who is, this one's for you.
Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
Follow Spencer on social ⬇
Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.

Brad and Spencer break down Google Threat Intelligence Group's latest report on how adversaries are weaponizing AI across the entire attack lifecycle.
The big takeaway isn't that AI has magically replaced attackers, but that it's making certain workflows faster, more scalable, and more repeatable. More importantly, AI platforms, agent skills, integrations, and dependencies are now becoming targets themselves.
Topics covered include:
AI for vulnerability discovery and exploit development: Google's first confirmed case of a zero-day exploit developed entirely with AI, including intentional prompts like "You are currently a network security expert specializing in embedded devices"
Claude skills weaponization: A distilled knowledge base of over 85,000 real-world vulnerability cases integrated into AI research workflows
Automation and scaled research: APT45 sending thousands of repetitive prompts to recursively analyze CVEs and validate proof-of-concept exploits
AI-powered obfuscation techniques: Dynamic modification, evasive payload generation, and decoy logic using Gemini API for just-in-time VBScript obfuscation
Autonomous attack orchestration: Moving beyond content generation into sophisticated malware command automation, including PromptSpy navigating Android UI for persistence
AI-enhanced reconnaissance: Generating detailed organizational hierarchies and third-party relationships for high-value targets in finance, security, and HR departments
Information operations and deepfakes: Taking legitimate journalist videos, editing in fabricated content, and adding AI-generated voiceovers
Attacking AI dependencies: TeamPCP (UNC6780) targeting AI environments as initial access vectors, including March 2026 supply chain attacks on Trivy, Checkmarx, and LiteLLM
The Mini Shai-Hulud worm: May 2026 attacks targeting AI infrastructure and dependencies
Defensive fundamentals: Why inventory, zero trust principles, and behavioral monitoring matter more than ever
Brad and Spencer emphasize that while the threat landscape is evolving rapidly, doubling down on foundational security practices remains the most effective defense strategy.
Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
Follow Spencer on social ⬇
Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.

In Episode 180, hosts Brad Causey and Spencer Alessi tackle a critical but often overlooked issue in cybersecurity: the echo chambers that can undermine critical thinking and effective security programs.
Inspired by recent experiences at the ILTA Evolve conference, Spencer and Brad explore how cybersecurity professionals, from practitioners to executives, can fall into bubbles where everyone reinforces the same ideas without questioning underlying assumptions.
Topics covered include:
What cybersecurity echo chambers look like: conferences where everyone "reaffirms what they already knew" instead of challenging assumptions
The AI hype cycle as a prime example: why the industry's multi-million-dollar conferences around "the new thing" miss the point that fundamental security principles still apply
Social media's role in amplifying bias: how anecdotes from single engagements get generalized into "every organization is terrible at X" without considering nuance
Conference culture and groupthink: when entire events operate in lockstep without anyone asking critical questions
The danger of not having your own opinion: how IT and security leaders without formed opinions become vulnerable to the best sales pitch rather than the best solution
Vendor influence on thought leadership: understanding financial and emotional motivations behind industry messaging
Strategies to combat echo chambers: doing your own research, questioning everything, admitting when you don't know something
The power of diverse perspectives: why opinions from people outside your expertise can be the most valuable
Acknowledging bias and being wrong: how intellectual humility breaks down echo chambers
Building a network of trusted advisors: asking people you trust what they think, even if they're not domain experts
While technical skills are crucial, nothing ruins a cybersecurity organization like bad culture, and echo chambers are a subcategory of that cultural problem. Whether you're navigating conferences, evaluating vendors, or building your security program, this episode offers practical guidance for maintaining critical thinking in an industry that can be driven more by hype than substance.
Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
Follow Spencer on social ⬇
Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.

In Episode 179 of the Cyber Threat Perspective podcast, host Brad Causey and web app pen tester Jordan Natter kick off a multi-part series on the OWASP Top 10, the newly updated list of the most common and critical web application security risks, with a fresh version released in 2025.
Before diving in, Brad sets the record straight on something that's been bugging him for 20 years: the OWASP Top 10 is an awareness document, not a compliance framework, not a pen test checklist, and not a comprehensive defense guide. If your vendor claims they "comply with the OWASP Top 10," that's a red flag — you can't comply with an awareness document.
Part 1 focuses entirely on A01: Broken Access Control — the most dangerous and most common category on the list — and the conversation goes deep with real-world stories from active engagements.
Topics covered include:
What OWASP actually is — and why the Top 10 is both invaluable and widely misunderstood
Broken Access Control — what it means, why it tops the list, and how it manifests in real applications
JWT validation failures — a healthcare application where improper JWT handling allowed unauthorized access to admin functionality
MFA bypass via broken access control — a university application where MFA codes weren't properly scoped, enabling account takeover
CORS misconfigurations — how Cross-Origin Resource Sharing policies fail in modern Node and React applications, including a real story of bypassing CORS by allowing AWS resources
Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR) — why IDOR isn't just about changing integer IDs, including a university app where changing a student ID number led to staff-level privilege escalation
S3 bucket IDOR — how a modern web application exposed PHI by returning GUIDs in JSON responses that could be enumerated directly
Hidden functionality as false security — why hiding admin URLs from the navigation bar is obscurity, not security, and how Jordan accessed an entire admin PDF panel as an unauthenticated user just by copying a URL
OWASP Top 10: https://owasp.org/Top10/2025/0x00_2025-Introduction/ 
Blog: https://offsec.blog/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cyberthreatpov
Twitter: https://x.com/cyberthreatpov
Follow Spencer on social ⬇
Spencer's Links: https://spenceralessi.com
Work with Us: https://securit360.com | Find vulnerabilities that matter, learn about how we do internal pentesting here.