Most movies show a hacker “breaking in” in seconds. Real attacks are usually careful, patient and methodical, a process called by the cyber professionals as a “kill chain.” Here’s an explanation of five common stages attackers follow.

1. Reconnaissance (information gathering)

Attackers quietly collect public and semi-public information about a company, people, systems and technologies — things like domain names, employee names and email formats, open services, and company-published architecture. Recon can be passive (reading public pages, social media) or active (querying DNS, WHOIS, port scans). Good defenses start here: limiting public exposure and training staff about what they publish helps a lot. https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0043/

2. Scanning & enumeration

After reconnaissance, attackers probe the target to find real entry points: open ports, outdated software, misconfigured servers, and exposed services. This stage turns passive facts into concrete targets — IPs, vulnerable apps, or weak authentication. Organizations can detect this stage by monitoring abnormal scans and unusual service queries. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/ethical-hacking/5-phases-hacking/

3. Gaining access (initial compromise / exploitation)

Now the attacker uses an exploit, stolen credentials, phishing, or a malicious file to actually get into a system. That might be tricking a user to open a weaponized email attachment, reusing a breached password, or exploiting a known vulnerability in a public-facing app. This is the stage most people imagine, but it rarely works without the prior research and scanning. https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/cybersecurity-101/cyberattacks/cyber-kill-chain/

4. Maintaining access (persistence)

Having gained entry, the attacker installs backdoors, creates stealthy accounts, or plants scheduled tasks so they can return later — even if the initial vulnerability is patched. This persistence is what turns a one-off break-in into an ongoing threat (e.g., data theft over weeks/months). Defense here means good endpoint detection, timely patching, and strict privilege controls. https://www.sentinelone.com/cybersecurity-101/threat-intelligence/mitre-attack-framework/

5. Covering tracks & actions on objectives (exfiltration, laterally moving)

Finally, attackers may move across the network (lateral movement), gather and exfiltrate valuable data, or sabotage systems — while trying to erase logs and hide their traces. Detection relies on anomaly hunting (odd data transfers, unexpected admin activity) and immutable logging that attackers can’t easily delete. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/capabilities/cyber/cyber-kill-chain.html

What you can do today

• Reduce public exposure: review what employees post and what systems are publicly reachable.
• Patch promptly and inventory software versions.
• Use multi-factor authentication and unique passwords.
• Monitor for scanning and unusual logins; keep tamper-resistant logs.
• Train staff against phishing and social engineering — most initial compromises start there.