If You're Reachable, You're Breachable, Part 1: The Adversary's First Move – Finding You

In the physical world, we understand security through simple, tangible concepts. We lock our doors, close our windows, and draw the blinds. We know that an open door is an invitation for trouble. In the digital world, however, the doors and windows aren't always so obvious. They are VPNs, firewalls, private applications, and cloud services—and for many organizations, they are wide open.

This brings us to a fundamental truth of modern cybersecurity: If you are reachable, you are breachable.

It’s a simple but powerful premise. Every server, application, or device directly exposed to the internet is a potential foothold for an adversary. This isn't a scare tactic; it's the foundational principle of every modern cyberattack. 

Over this three-part series, we'll deconstruct the adversary's playbook, which is finding you, classifying you and then exploiting you. Let’s start with the critical first step that makes all others possible: finding you.

The Old Playbook vs. The New: Reconnaissance at Scale

In the past, reconnaissance was a noisy and laborious process. Attackers would run active scans against a target's IP range, "knocking" on digital doors to see which ones were open. It was time-consuming, and it created a lot of noise that could be detected by security teams.

Today, the game has completely changed. Adversaries no longer need to knock on your specific door. Instead, they consult global, publicly available directories that have already cataloged every open door, window, and unlocked shed on the entire internet.

The tools: The Search Engines of Exposure

Meet the adversary's best friends: the tools. Think of these tools not as Google, which indexes web content, but as search engines for devices. They continuously scan the entire internet (every single IPv4 and IPv6 address) and index the services running on them.

What can they find? Everything.

• Exposed Databases: A quick search can reveal databases that are publicly accessible, often without authentication.
• Vulnerable Remote Access: They can instantly find servers with exposed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) or SSH ports, a favorite entry point for ransomware gangs.
• Industrial Control Systems (ICS): Frighteningly, systems controlling water treatment plants, power grids, and manufacturing lines can be found with simple queries.
• Outdated Software: An attacker can search for a specific, vulnerable version of Firewall or a VPN and get a list of every server on the internet that needs to be patched—a ready-made list of targets.

These tools transform reconnaissance from an active hunt into a passive query. The attacker isn't targeting you; they are targeting a vulnerability. They simply ask, "Show me everyone who is vulnerable to X," and the tools provide a list. If your organization is on that list, you've just been "found."

Enter AI: Reconnaissance on Autopilot

As powerful as these search engines are, the sheer volume of data they provide can be overwhelming. This is where Artificial Intelligence is becoming the adversary's most powerful force multiplier in the "Find" phase. Attackers are using AI to supercharge their reconnaissance in three key ways:

1. Hyper-Efficient Pattern Recognition: An AI model can sift through petabytes of data from these tools, public records, and other sources to identify subtle patterns of exposure. It doesn't just find one open port; it can identify an organization's entire external footprint, recognizing naming conventions in subdomains or identifying all assets hosted on a specific cloud provider.
2. Intelligent Correlation: AI excels at connecting disparate dots. It can take a list of exposed devices from these tools, correlate it with employee profiles on social media ("show me all network admins at Company X"), and cross-reference that with code snippets leaked on public repositories. This builds a rich, multi-dimensional profile of a target organization, moving beyond simple IP addresses to understand the people and processes behind them.
3. Predictive Targeting: Most importantly, AI helps adversaries prioritize. By analyzing the data, AI models can predict which of the thousands of exposed services are most likely to be successfully exploitable or lead to high-value assets. It answers the question, "Of these 10,000 potential targets, which 10 offer the path of least resistance to the crown jewels?" This allows them to focus their efforts with surgical precision.

You Must Be Unreachable

The "Find" phase of an attack is no longer a manual effort. It is a continuous, automated, AI-driven process. Your organization's attack surface is being scanned and indexed 24/7, not necessarily by someone targeting you specifically, but by automated systems looking for any opportunity.

This is why the traditional castle-and-moat approach of Firewall and VPNs that is trying to protect the perimeter is failing. The perimeter has dissolved, and the doors are everywhere. The only winning move is to make your doors invisible. The solution is to take your internal applications and infrastructure off the internet entirely, rendering them unreachable and therefore unfindable.

For a summary of this blog and for a visual representation, take a look at this video.

In Part 2, where we explore what happens next. Now that adversaries have found you, how do they classify your assets and employees to plot their attack?