From Initial Access To Post-Compromise Abuse: What Our Latest ATO Analysis Reveals
Proofpoint, Wednesday, February 25th, 2026
In today's agentic workspace, user credentials have become attackers' highest-value targets. Organizations rely on cloud platforms, collaboration tools, browsers, and third-party applications to get work done. When threat actors compromise an account, they can use it to abuse trust, automate malicious activities, and expand attacks across all these channels and more.
Key takeaways:
Proofpoint threat research shows that 99% of organizations experienced account takeover (ATO) threats during the study period.
Targeted attacks win; spear phishing succeeds two times more often than brute-force attacks.
Post-compromise is the danger zone. 88% of organizations experience abuse after attackers gain access.