Attackers hit vulnerabilities hard last year, making exploits the top entry point for breaches

Verizon's DBIR finds exploited vulnerabilities rose to 31% of known initial access vectors across ~22,000 breaches, driven in part by many CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) being actively used; only 26% of critical KEV defects were fully remediated and median time-to-patch increased to 43 days. The report also notes ransomware accounted for 48% of breaches (financially motivated actors ~88%), though ransom payments declined, and emphasizes the large scale and persistent remediation gaps enabling ongoing exploitation.