Attackers range from opportunistic criminals (phishing, ransomware-as-a-service) to nation-states and insiders. Motives: money, espionage, disruption, ideology.
Common attack patterns
- Credential theft and password spraying
- Phishing and social engineering
- Exploiting unpatched software (CVEs)
- Cloud misconfiguration (public buckets)
- Supply-chain compromise (malicious dependency)
STRIDE preview
Threat modeling categories: Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information disclosure, Denial of service, Elevation of privilege. Use in design reviews.
Important interview questions and answers
- Q: STRIDE Spoofing example?
A: Fake login page or stolen session cookie pretending to be a user. - Q: Why insiders matter?
A: They already have access—monitoring and least privilege limit damage.
Self-check
- Name three attack patterns from the list.
- What is STRIDE used for?
Tip: Read one breach postmortem monthly—patterns repeat (cred theft, misconfig).
Interview prep
- STRIDE?
Threat modeling mnemonic for design reviews.