Call it an urgent reality check for managed service providers (MSPs). If you’re managing client infrastructure and security, you must pay attention to the recently released 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR). Among the wealth of findings, two trends in particular should set off alarm bells: The dramatic spike in vulnerability exploitation and the doubling of third-party breaches.   

For 17 years, Verizon’s annual DBIR has provided authoritative insights into the evolving threat landscape. This year’s report offers a sobering perspective for service providers: Attackers are operationalizing vulnerability exploitation and targeting trusted third parties at unprecedented rates.  

The Vulnerability Exploitation Crisis  

The data paints a clear picture: A full 20% of breaches this year stemmed from exploitation of known vulnerabilities, a 34% increase from last year. Vulnerability exploitation jumped from being a distant third among initial access vectors in 2022 to nearly overtaking stolen credentials as the top method in 2025.  

What’s particularly concerning is how these breaches disproportionately target edge devices — firewalls, VPNs and remote access points. Even more troubling, only 54% of these vulnerabilities were patched before exploitation. That’s essentially a coin flip your clients are losing.    

This statistic reveals a hard truth: Attackers have operationalized vulnerability scanning faster than most MSPs have operationalized patching. They’re running constant automated scans, exploiting new CVEs within days and specifically targeting exposed infrastructure.  

The operational challenges are real. Patching edge devices can be disruptive. Clients worry about downtime, vendors can be slow with firmware releases and it’s easy to fall into treating patching as a routine administrative task rather than a critical security function.  

The time has come to fundamentally shift how we view patching — from an administrative checkbox to an active form of incident prevention:  

1. Prioritize exposure over convenience: Public-facing systems must be patched first, regardless of operational discomfort. 
     
2. Shrink remediation timelines: Reduce the gap between vulnerability disclosure and remediation from months to days or weeks at most. 
     
3. Invest in visibility: Know which systems are vulnerable, exposed and critical in a potential breach chain. 
     
4. Ruin the ROI for attackers: Make their efforts unprofitable by closing vulnerabilities quickly, forcing them to move on to less secure targets. 
     

The vulnerabilities that matter most actually live in plain view of the internet, waiting to be weaponized. 

The Third-Party Breach Explosion  

The second critical trend from the report demands attention: A full 30% of breaches now involve a third party, double what we saw last year. This statistic lands squarely on MSPs.  

Every remote session, every monitored system and every credential MSPs hold represents a potential avenue for compromise. Your internal security posture is now part of every client’s risk surface. The breaches tied to third-party compromises rarely involve sophisticated zero-day attacks. More often, they stem from failures in security fundamentals: Poor hygiene, weak authentication on RMM platforms, inadequate internal segmentation, overprivileged accounts and ineffective monitoring.  

MSPs must recognize themselves as prime targets for malicious actors who see them as gateways to multiple client organizations:  

1. Harden your internal environment first: Embrace the “oxygen mask theory” by securing yourself before your clients. 
     
2. Enforce MFA everywhere: Eliminate exceptions made for convenience. 
     
3. Segment administrative access: Ensure no single compromised system can cascade into client environments. 
     
4. Review privileges rigorously: Implement least-privilege access across your operations. 
     
5. Vet every vendor and platform: Apply the same scrutiny to your tools that you would to critical client assets. 
     
6. Architect for breach containment: Assume compromise will happen and design to limit the blast radius. 
     

The Strategic Reality for MSPs  

Broader forces are reshaping threats for MSPs. Attackers are scaling faster than defenders, powered by automation, AI and rapid weaponization of vulnerabilities. At the same time, clients are increasingly sensitive to supply chain risk due to insurance requirements, regulations and their own survival instincts.  

Security credibility is becoming the ultimate differentiator for MSPs. Successful providers must prove their operational security, discipline and trustworthiness rather than simply managing tickets. The MSPs that thrive will be those who build their credibility systematically, demonstrate it proactively and protect it ruthlessly.  

The core principles of cybersecurity, patch management, privilege control, visibility and segmentation are more critical than ever. As attackers exploit complexity, organizations must respond with simplicity and operational discipline. A strategic, disciplined defense not only strengthens security but also disrupts the economics of cyberattacks.