What's Lateral Movement and How Does it Apply to You?

As cyber-attacks grow increasingly complex, attackers take advantage of connected networks and devices to move laterally, often undetected. The cloud and SaaS have further expanded supply chains, and a breach in one level of the chain can lead to devastating consequences for operations, regardless of cyber control maturity. VMware’s 2022 Global Incident Response Threat Report shows that a quarter of all attacks involved lateral movement. Moreover, one out of every 10 respondents said lateral movement was present in at least half of their engagements, while another report from VMware found that nearly half of all intrusions involved lateral movement. Lateral movement refers to the attacker's ability to move through connected systems and devices to gain access to more assets. According to IBM's report, in 2022, it took organizations an average of 277 days to identify and contain a breach, which is about nine months. Hence, it is crucial to strengthen defenses to stop lateral movement. Here are five ways to work against attackers:

Manage user administration: Each person accessing the systems and network should have a user account with login credentials. Use a least privilege approach to user management to grant access to only what is necessary for their jobs.

Deploy anti-malware: Attackers often leave ransomware and other malicious software to wreak havoc while moving through systems. Use anti-malware to monitor incoming and outgoing data to prevent ransomware infections.

Use multifactor authentication (MFA): Threat actors are skilled at phishing and social engineering to steal credentials. Use MFA to make it more challenging for them to steal credentials. Educate staff on MFA and related best practices.

Mandate strong passwords: Train employees on password best practices and use a password management system that requires strong passwords and routine changes.

Segment networks and back up data: Interconnectivity enables lateral movement. Implement network segmentation and conduct routine data backups stored in different locations to enable quick recovery in case of an attack.

Cyclone 365 proactively monitors your network to spot vulnerabilities and keep it safe. It’s virtually impossible to protect a business 100% without making everything far too restrictive for your team, so we specialize in designing and maintaining IT security systems that offer the highest levels of protection and limiting the damage ransomware and other types of malware can do without introducing unmanageable levels of inconvenience to your daily operations.

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