Real World Cyber Attacks & How to Stop Them

Session description

Most early-career security professionals, and even many experienced practitioners, have never seen a real cyberattack unfold in front of them, and that gap matters. This session walks through a full, live, and intentionally straightforward attack chain from the perspective of an ethical hacker, showing how quickly simple weaknesses can escalate into major compromise.

Drawing on his experience leading offensive security teams and teaching university-level cybersecurity, the speaker will break down each stage of the intrusion in a way that’s approachable, beginner-friendly, and grounded in real adversary behavior: no prior hacking knowledge required.

After the live demonstration, we’ll deconstruct the attack using the MITRE ATT&CK framework to map every tactic and technique involved. This gives newer practitioners a clear, structured way to understand attacker workflows while providing a shared vocabulary for communicating threats across technical and non-technical teams. Attendees will leave with practical insights into how attackers think, where defenses commonly fail, and how they can immediately begin improving detection and resilience in their own environments.