The Anatomy of a Destructive Attack

This report describes the threat of destructive cyberattacks — notably wiper malware and mass remote wipes — outlining their real-world impact (e.g., Shamoon, NotPetya), the typical infection chain (credential theft, lateral movement, backup targeting, and mass wipe), and practical resilience controls. It maps attacker behavior to the MITRE ATT&CK framework and recommends defenses such as phishing-resistant MFA, isolation of untrusted content, protection of administrative consoles and backups, firmware integrity checks, and tested recovery processes, illustrated with HP security product capabilities to limit operational disruption and speed recovery.