The majority of cybersecurity attacks in 2025 will focus on exploiting easily accessible vulnerabilities, such as exposed credentials and user access patterns. The NIST framework's 2.0 update from 2024 aligns with the vision for Security Lifecycle Management (SLM), which involves protecting secrets, identifying access, detecting breaches, and securing modern infrastructure access systems. Hard-coded credentials in AI services are a common vulnerability, and using tools like HashiCorp Vault can help manage and rotate these secrets. The dangers of access tooling sprawl and exposed plaintext credentials when cloning repositories also need to be addressed, with the use of secret scanners like HCP Vault Radar providing critical detection capabilities. Ultimately, making security best practices easy to follow, facilitating collaboration between departments, and providing visibility into system access are key takeaways from 2024 breaches.