I imagine when you see the words IT cybersecurity defences, your heart sinks.
Apologies in advance, but this article won’t do much to calm your nerves — but it will give you a ray of hope that cybercrime can be prevented.
No business wants a data breach. The consequences are potentially costly. GDPR rules for a data breach can result in hefty fines, reputational damage, and loss of customer trust.
In today’s digital landscape, the battlefield to defend against cyber threats is never-ending. But it’s not impossible to win. With effective cybersecurity strategies, you significantly increase your chances of coming out on top.
By combining proactive monitoring, multi-layered security controls, and employee awareness, organisations can reduce risk, detect attacks early, and minimise impact.
However, before you start throwing your money at invisible problems, you need to understand the latest hacking methods cybercriminals are deploying.
In this article, we examine the latest hacking techniques and tell which IT cybersecurity defences keep you one step ahead of cybercriminals.
Zero-Day Exploits and Exploit-as-a-Service
One of the most dangerous cyber threats businesses face today is zero-day exploits that target vulnerabilities unknown to software vendors and IT cybersecurity defenders.
A zero-day exploit takes advantage of unfixed flaws in software, firmware, or hardware. Software inevitably develops vulnerabilities, and sophisticated hackers can slip through the back door before the fault is fixed with a patch.
Attackers typically discover these flaws through reverse engineering, fuzzing, or purchasing them on underground markets.
Once exploited, zero-days can be used to gain initial access, escalate privileges, deploy malware, or move laterally across networks.
If zero-day exploits is not bad enough, less sophisticated hackers can also get in on the game.
Exploit-as-a-Service lowers the barrier to entry by commercialising the techniques used to exploit gateways in the software.
Skilled developers lease zero-day capabilities to criminal groups via subscription or pay-per-use models. This turns highly advanced attack techniques into scalable business tools, enabling less-skilled attackers to launch sophisticated breaches.
Which IT cybersecurity defences prevent zero-day exploits?
- Install behaviour-based threat detection (EDR/XDR) to identify abnormal activity rather than known exploits
- Zero Trust architecture, limiting what compromised systems can access
- Network segmentation to prevent lateral movement
- Application allow-listing and least-privilege access
- Rapid patch management once vulnerabilities are disclosed
- Continuous monitoring and threat hunting to detect early indicators of compromise
In practice, resilience against zero-days depends on assumed breach thinking — designing systems to contain and detect attacks even when prevention fails.
AI-Enhanced Attacks
Artificial intelligence and machine learning increase the speed, scale, and precision of cybercrime. Attacks are harder to detect and stop.
Cybersecurity firms claim attackers use AI to automate reconnaissance, rapidly scanning networks, cloud environments, and exposed services to identify weaknesses.
Machine learning models can analyse system responses and adapt attack techniques in real time, selecting the most effective payloads or attack paths.
In phishing campaigns, generative AI produces highly personalised, grammatically perfect emails that mimic trusted colleagues or suppliers, dramatically increasing success rates.
AI is also embedded in malware, allowing it to evade detection by changing its behaviour dynamically. Polymorphic malware can rewrite its own code, while AI-driven command-and-control systems adjust communication patterns to blend into normal network traffic.
Brute-force and credential-stuffing attacks are optimised by AI models that predict password patterns and prioritise high-value accounts.
What IT Cybersecurity defences can be used to detect and prevent AI-enhanced attacks?
- AI-driven security tools (EDR, XDR, SIEM) that detect behavioural anomalies
- Strong identity controls, including MFA and conditional access
- Security awareness training focused on deepfake and social engineering threats
- Email and collaboration platform protection with advanced threat analysis
- Least-privilege access to limit impact if credentials are compromised
Ultimately, defending against AI-enhanced attacks requires organisations to fight AI with AI, combining automation, continuous monitoring, and human oversight to stay ahead of rapidly adapting threats.
Deepfake Scams
Another way that hackers are using artificial intelligence for nefarious reasons are the deepfake scams we are seeing popping up on social media platforms.
Deepfake scams exploit human trust rather than technical vulnerabilities.
Using artificial intelligence to convincingly impersonate real people, attackers begin by collecting publicly available audio or video of a target.
Deepfake videos are typically executives sourced from webinars, earnings calls, social media, or internal recordings leaked through prior breaches.
These samples are used to train deep learning models, enabling the creation of synthetic voices or realistic facial movements that closely match the individual.
Once trained, criminals deploy the deepfake in high-pressure social engineering attacks.
Common scenarios include fake video calls from a “CEO” instructing finance staff to make urgent wire transfers, or voice messages from a “CFO” demanding sensitive financial data.
The realism of these interactions, combined with authority and urgency, significantly increases the likelihood of compliance.
How to spot deepfake scams
Defensive measures focus on procedural and technical controls.
Organisations should implement strict financial verification processes, such as dual approval for payments and mandatory out-of-band confirmation.
Security awareness training must now include education on deepfake risks, teaching staff to question unusual requests even from familiar faces or voices.
Identity-based protections, including role-based access and least-privilege policies, limit the damage if deception succeeds.
Finally, AI-powered detection tools for voice and video analysis, combined with robust incident response plans, help identify and contain deepfake attacks before significant losses occur.
Identity and Credentials Abuse
Identity and credentials abuse has consistently been one of the most effective and persistent hacking techniques because it allows attackers to operate as legitimate users.
Rather than breaking in, they log in.
Cybercriminals typically obtain credentials through phishing emails, credential-stuffing attacks, keylogging malware, or by purchasing leaked usernames and passwords from previous data breaches on the dark web.
Once valid credentials are captured, attackers can bypass many perimeter defences and move laterally within systems without triggering immediate suspicion.
After access is gained, adversaries often escalate privileges, create persistence through additional accounts, and exploit trusted access to steal data, deploy ransomware, or conduct financial fraud.
Because activity appears to originate from an authorised identity, detection is frequently delayed, increasing the scale and impact of the breach.
How can you defend against identity and credential abuse?
IT cybersecurity defences help to protect businesses against identity and credential abuse. But it requires a layered approach:
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is the single most effective control, significantly reducing the value of stolen passwords.
- Strong password policies, combined with password managers, help prevent reuse across systems.
- Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions enforce least-privilege access and ensure users only have permissions essential to their role.
- Continuous monitoring using user and entity behaviour analytics (UEBA) can detect anomalous login patterns, such as impossible travel or unusual access times.
- Regular security awareness training remains critical, as human error is often the initial point of compromise.
Advanced Phishing & Social Engineering
Advanced phishing and social engineering attacks exploit human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities.
They can be highly effective and difficult to detect.
Unlike basic phishing, these attacks are carefully researched and personalised. Attackers gather information from social media, company websites, data breaches, and public records to craft highly convincing emails, messages, or phone calls.
Techniques such as spear phishing, business email compromise (BEC), and multi-channel attacks (email combined with SMS or voice calls) are used to create urgency, authority, or emotional pressure, prompting victims to reveal credentials, transfer funds, or install malware.
In many cases, attackers impersonate trusted individuals — executives, IT staff, suppliers, or clients — using spoofed domains or compromised email accounts.
Some campaigns unfold gradually, building rapport over time before delivering a malicious request.
This sophistication allows attackers to bypass traditional spam filters and exploit gaps in human judgement.
How to defend against phishing and social engineering
Defending against advanced phishing requires installing IT cybersecurity defences which govern both technical controls and behavioural resilience.
- Email security gateways with AI-driven threat detection can identify anomalous sender behaviour and malicious links.
- Domain-based protections such as DMARC, SPF, and DKIM help prevent email spoofing.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) reduces the impact of stolen credentials.
- Cybersecurity awareness training teaches employees to recognise manipulation tactics and verify unusual requests.
- Clear verification procedures, especially for financial transactions or credential requests, create organisational friction that disrupts social engineering attempts before damage occurs.
If you want to go deeper on spear phishing attacks and how to defend them, check out this article: Can Your Staff Spot Phishing Scams and Other Cyber Attacks?
Supply Chain Compromises
Supply chain compromises occur when attackers infiltrate an organisation indirectly by breaching a trusted third party, such as a software vendor, managed service provider, or hardware supplier.
Rather than attacking the target head-on, cybercriminals exploit weaknesses in upstream systems and use legitimate update mechanisms, integrations, or credentials to distribute malicious code.
Once the compromised supplier pushes an update or connects to client environments, malware is deployed silently across multiple organisations at scale.
These attacks are especially dangerous because they bypass traditional security controls.
Malicious software appears to come from a trusted source, often signed with valid certificates, allowing it to evade detection. Attackers then use this access to steal data, establish persistence, or conduct espionage and ransomware operations over extended periods.
What IT Cybersecurity software can you use to prevent supply chain attacks?
- Implement vendor risk management, assessing suppliers’ security posture before onboarding
- Least-privilege access must be enforced for third-party integrations.
- Network segmentation reduces the blast radius if a supplier is compromised.
- 24/7 monitoring and threat detection tools
Botnets & IoT Exploitation
Botnets and IoT exploitation involve hijacking large numbers of internet-connected devices and controlling them remotely to carry out coordinated cyberattacks.
Attackers typically target poorly secured IoT devices such as cameras, routers, smart TVs, and industrial sensors that use default passwords, outdated firmware, or exposed management interfaces.
Automated scanning tools identify vulnerable devices at scale, after which malware is deployed to enrol them into a botnet.
Once compromised, these devices communicate with a command-and-control (C2) server, allowing attackers to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, spread malware, relay spam, or act as entry points into corporate networks.
Because IoT devices often lack robust security logging and are rarely monitored, infections can persist unnoticed for long periods.
Which IT Cybersecurity tools prevent botnet and IoT exploitation?
- Update default credentials
- Disable unnecessary services
- Keep firmware up to date
- Network segmentation is critical — IoT devices should be isolated from core business systems to limit lateral movement
- Firewall rules and intrusion detection systems can block known malicious traffic and identify unusual outbound connections to C2 servers.
- Device inventory and monitoring ensure unauthorised or rogue devices are quickly identified
Where possible, organisations should select IoT products with built-in security features, such as encryption and centralised management, to reduce long-term exposure.
Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) Triple-Extortion Model
Cybercrime is a highly organised industry. But not all hackers are sophisticated.
However, anybody can get their hands on hacking tools and techniques from the dark web.
Ransomware developers lease their tools to affiliates in exchange for a share of the profits.
The attack typically begins with initial access gained through phishing, stolen credentials, unpatched vulnerabilities, or compromised remote access services.
Once inside a network, attackers move laterally, escalate privileges, disable backups, and exfiltrate sensitive data before deploying ransomware.
The triple-extortion model increases pressure on victims in three ways:
First, systems are encrypted, halting operations.
Second, stolen data is threatened with public release if the ransom is not paid.
Third, attackers apply additional leverage by threatening customers, partners, or regulators, or by launching DDoS attacks to intensify disruption.
This layered coercion significantly increases the likelihood of payment, especially for regulated or customer-facing organisations.
How can businesses prevent ransomware attacks?
Defending against RaaS attacks requires a layered IT cybersecurity strategy which includes:
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Regular, offline backups are essential to enable recovery without paying a ransom
- Network segmentation
- Continuous vulnerability management and patching
IT Cybersecurity Defences Experts in Surrey
For businesses in London, Kent, and Surrey, partnering with IT cybersecurity experts ensures that your organisation benefits from tailored, multi-layered IT cybersecurity defences.
Proactive protection, continuous monitoring, and strategic guidance help prevent breaches, safeguard data, and maintain operational resilience in an increasingly complex cyber threat landscape.
For more information, call us today and speak with a senior member of our strategic team to find out which IT cybersecurity defences you need to protect your business.