Verizon's DBIR Reveals 34% Jump in Vulnerability Exploitation

The use of vulnerability exploitation as an initial access vector leading to cyber incidents grew threefold over the past two years, according to Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR).

After a staggering 180% rise in successful vulnerability exploits in Verizon’s 2024 DBIR findings, the latest report, published on April 23, 2025, showed another 34% rise.

This initial access method now represents 20% of the overall data breaches observed by Verizon, just two percentage points below the top vector, credential abuse. Phishing came third, now representing 16% of data breaches.