Over the past few years, organizations have faced attackers that no longer spend most of their effort trying to break through hardened perimeters. Instead, they log in using valid credentials, purchased access, and hijacked sessions. At the center of this shift is a rapidly expanding criminal marketplace built around initial access brokers.

These brokers have become a fundamental part of the cybercrime supply chain, with intelligence reports consistently showing that extortion and other criminal groups are moving away from conducting their own intrusions and instead buying access to already compromised environments. This access often includes domain-level privileges, exposed VPN connections, or remote management tools that allow immediate control. Recent real-world incidents reinforce this model, as identity-driven attacks linked to groups such as Scattered Spider and Handala demonstrate how social engineering combined with identity compromise can bypass traditional controls, particularly in SaaS-heavy environments where visibility is sometimes limited.

Understanding this landscape gives organizations a clear advantage by enabling them to recognize early signals that access has already been brokered or is about to be sold, and to prioritize defenses that disrupt attackers before persistence is established. This session provides a practical, evidence-based view of how modern attacks actually begin and what security teams can do to stop them before they turn into full-scale breaches.