hybrid attack

This term originated in the world of hacking where attempts are made to discover a password.  The hybrid attack combines two strategies.  One is the brute force attack which simply throws possibility after possibility at the password at tremendous speed in the hope of finding the right one.  But this can be combined with a more strategic approach (the dictionary approach) where a list is compiled of all the user’s likely passwords.  Some are based on information about the user (for example, date of birth), some are commonly used passwords (Password123), some are common phrases, some are keyboard letter clusters.

The term has moved on to describe attacks by cybercriminals (including agents of a state) to weaken and confuse their target by combining a number of different kinds of attack made at the same time, such as disinformation and other manipulative social messaging, attacks by cyber weapons on infrastructure and security, etc.