The CyberLeveling Breach Anatomy Model
Why Most Breach Reporting Fails
Most breach coverage answers what happened, sometimes who was affected, and almost never why it was inevitable.
Headlines focus on:
- the attacker
- the stolen data
- the dollar figure
What gets lost is structure. The repeatable mechanics that make breaches predictable and preventable.
The CyberLeveling Breach Anatomy Model exists to fix that.
It is a structured, level based system for analyzing data breaches consistently, over time, across industries.
This model is not designed for news cycles.
It is designed for memory, comparison, and learning.
What the Breach Anatomy Model Is
The CyberLeveling Breach Anatomy Model breaks every breach into seven analytical levels.
Each level answers a specific question.
Together, they form a complete picture of how a breach occurred, why it escalated, and what it teaches beyond itself.
The same levels are applied to every breach, even when information is incomplete.
Consistency is the point.
A Permanent Decision at CyberLeveling
From this point forward, every data breach analyzed on CyberLeveling will follow the CyberLeveling Breach Anatomy Model.
This is not a temporary experiment.
It is a permanent analytical standard used across:
- breach reports
- historical breach reviews
- future incident analyses
When information is unavailable, it will be explicitly marked as unknown, undisclosed, or inferred.
This decision ensures that CyberLeveling does not publish isolated articles, but builds a long term, comparable breach record.
Level 1: Surface
How Did the Breach Become Possible?
Question:
What exposed the organization to initial compromise?
This level focuses on the entry surface, not the attacker.
Typical factors include:
- Phishing or social engineering
- Exposed services
- Weak authentication
- Known or unknown vulnerabilities
- Misconfigurations
- Supply chain exposure
This level prevents vague explanations like “a cyberattack occurred.”
Level 2: Intrusion
How Was Access Gained and Expanded?
Question:
Once inside, how did the attacker move?
This level examines:
- Credential abuse or bypass
- Privilege escalation
- Lateral movement
- Tools or techniques used
- Time from initial access to meaningful control, when known
Intrusion explains capability, not just presence.
Level 3: Persistence
Why Was the Attacker Not Removed?
Question:
What allowed the attacker to remain?
This level highlights defensive blind spots such as:
- Lack of monitoring
- Logging gaps
- Weak endpoint controls
- Persistence mechanisms
- Alert fatigue or ignored signals
Duration is often more damaging than entry.
Level 4: Impact
What Was Actually Compromised?
Question:
What was lost, altered, or exposed in reality?
This level separates:
- Data types affected
- Systems impacted
- User scope
- Operational disruption
- Secondary effects
Headline impact and real impact are often not the same.
Level 5: Response
How Did the Organization React?
Question:
How was the breach detected, handled, and disclosed?
This includes:
- Detection source, whether internal, third party, or external
- Speed of containment
- Quality of public disclosure
- Remediation actions taken
Response reveals security maturity more than the breach itself.
Level 6: Root Cause
Why Was This Breach Inevitable?
Question:
What systemic failure made this possible?
Root cause goes beyond:
- Human error
- Zero day exploits
It examines:
- Architectural debt
- Governance gaps
- Security prioritization failures
- Repeated historical patterns
- Incentive misalignment
Most breaches are symptoms, not surprises.
Level 7: Lessons and Pattern
What Does This Predict?
Question:
What does this breach teach beyond itself?
This level extracts:
- Reusable attacker patterns
- Defensive anti patterns
- Industry wide implications
- Signals about future breach trends
This is where analysis becomes knowledge, not reporting.
How the Model Is Used at CyberLeveling
Every breach analyzed on CyberLeveling:
- follows the same seven levels
- uses consistent terminology
- documents uncertainty explicitly
- is updated when new information emerges
Over time, this creates a structured breach archive rather than a collection of disconnected articles.
Why Levels Matter
The level structure reflects reality.
Breaches are not single events.
They are progressions.
Understanding breaches requires moving step by step from exposure to consequence.
The Long Term Goal
Over time, this model enables:
- cross breach comparison
- long range pattern recognition
- historical continuity
- structured breach memory
The CyberLeveling Breach Anatomy Model is not final.
It is designed to evolve without breaking analytical consistency.
Final Note
Cybersecurity improves when we stop reacting emotionally and start analyzing structurally.
This model exists to make that possible.