Initial access
Also called the way in, entry point, foothold
The first step of a break-in: how an attacker gets from outside an organisation to a first foothold inside it.
Security teams break an attack into stages, and initial access is the first: the moment someone outside gets a foothold inside. Everything after it (looking around, gaining more permissions, taking data) depends on that first step.
The ways in are few and well known. A stolen or guessed login. A flaw in a device that faces the internet. A service left exposed by mistake. A person persuaded by a phishing message. AI has made each of these cheaper to attempt and has not added to the list.
Because the list is short, it is the most practical place to start. For each way in, a team can ask what stops it, what would show it happening, and what one foothold could reach.
For example
An attacker signs in with a password stolen from an employee's home computer, and is now inside the company's cloud account.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet initial access in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
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