Lateral Movement

What is “lateral movement” in cybersecurity? 

Lateral movement in cybersecurity refers to the techniques attackers use to navigate through a network after gaining initial access, moving from one compromised system to another, in search of valuable data or higher privileges. It’s a crucial phase in many cyberattacks, allowing adversaries to expand their reach and impact within a target organization.  

Key aspects of lateral movement: 

• Initial Access: Lateral movement typically follows initial access, which is the point where an attacker first breaches a system or network.  

• Exploitation of Credentials: Attackers often leverage stolen credentials or other compromised accounts to move between systems, mimicking legitimate user behavior to avoid detection.  

• Goal-Oriented: Lateral movement is not random; attackers are usually seeking specific high-value targets, such as sensitive data, critical systems, or privileged accounts.  

• Privilege Escalation: As attackers move laterally, they may also attempt to escalate their privileges, gaining access to more powerful accounts and resources.  

• Detection Challenges: Detecting lateral movement can be difficult because attackers often disguise their activities as normal network traffic, making it harder to identify malicious behavior 

Why is lateral movement dangerous? 

Lateral movement in cybersecurity is dangerous because it allows attackers to quietly expand their control over an environment after an initial breach, moving from one compromised system to another in search of high-value assets—often undetected. 

 Here’s why it poses a serious threat: 

1. It Turns a Small Breach into a Major Compromise 

An attacker might start with: 

• A single compromised endpoint 

• A low-privilege user account 

• A vulnerable IoT device 

Using lateral movement, they can: 

• Elevate privileges (e.g., via credential dumping) 

• Access internal databases, file shares, or admin consoles 

• Exfiltrate sensitive data or deploy ransomware across the network 

Impact: What begins as a minor foothold can lead to a full-scale breach affecting business-critical systems. 

 

2. It Often Bypasses Traditional Defenses 

Lateral movement happens inside the trusted perimeter, which makes it harder to detect with: 

• Traditional firewalls 

• Antivirus software 

• Basic intrusion detection systems 

Attackers often mimic legitimate user behavior using: 

• Valid credentials (e.g., from phishing or credential stuffing) 

• Common admin tools (e.g., PowerShell, RDP, SMB) 

Impact: The attacker blends in with normal activity, staying undetected for days, weeks, or even months. 

 

3. It Facilitates Ransomware and Data Theft 

Lateral movement enables attackers to: 

• Discover backup systems, domain controllers, and security tools (to disable them) 

• Steal large volumes of data from multiple sources 

• Encrypt multiple systems at once to maximize the impact of a ransomware attack 

Impact: Increases both the cost and complexity of incident response and recovery. 

 

4. It Compromises Trust Across the Organization 

Because lateral movement often involves compromising multiple user accounts, service accounts, and system credentials, it: 

• Undermines identity trust 

• Disrupts network segmentation 

• Makes it harder to distinguish legitimate activity from attacker behavior 

Impact: Organizations may need to reset passwords if they haven’t gone passwordless yet, reissue certificates, or rebuild systems entirely—adding to recovery time and cost. 

 

Summary 

Lateral movement is dangerous because it allows attackers to escalate, persist, and pivot deeper into a network, turning a single breach into a wide-reaching compromise that is hard to detect and expensive to contain.  

• Extended Reach: Lateral movement allows attackers to move beyond the initial point of compromise, potentially affecting a wider range of systems and data.  

• Increased Impact: By gaining access to sensitive systems and data, attackers can cause significant damage through data theft, ransomware attacks, or other malicious activities.  

• Difficult to Detect: The deceptive nature of lateral movement makes it challenging for security teams to detect and respond effectively.  

 In essence, lateral movement is a critical phase in many cyberattacks that allows attackers to significantly expand their reach and impact within a target organization. 

 

What is the best way to prevent lateral movement? 

The best way to prevent lateral movement is to adopt a defense-in-depth strategy that limits an attacker’s ability to pivot within your network—even if they gain an initial foothold. The most effective approach combines zero trust principles, network segmentation, identity controls, and continuous monitoring. 

Here’s a breakdown of the most effective techniques: 

1. Implement Zero Trust Architecture 

“Never trust, always verify” means that no user or device gets implicit trust—even inside the network. 

• Enforce context-aware access controls: who, what device, where, when 

• Continuously validate identity and device posture 

• Use micro-segmentation to limit resource access 

Why it works: It blocks unauthorized internal movement by treating all access as potentially hostile. 

 

2. Use Network Segmentation and Micro-Segmentation 

• Divide your network into smaller zones (e.g., by department, function, or sensitivity) 

• Apply least privilege access between segments using firewalls or software-defined networking 

• Isolate high-value assets like domain controllers or critical databases 

Why it works: Attackers can’t freely move from one system or segment to another. 

 

3. Enforce Least Privilege and Role-Based Access Control  

• Limit users and services to only the access they need 

• Regularly audit permissions and remove stale accounts 

• Use just-in-time (JIT) access for sensitive admin tasks 

Why it works: Limits the blast radius if an attacker compromises a low-privilege account. 

 

4. Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) 

• Monitor endpoints for lateral movement behaviors like: 

• Use of admin tools  

• Unusual logon patterns 

• Credential dumping attempts 

• Automate isolation or alerting based on suspicious activity 

Why it works: EDR helps detect lateral movement before it leads to privilege escalation or exfiltration. 

 

5. Use Strong Identity Security and MFA 

• Enforce multi-factor authentication across all critical systems 

• Monitor for impossible travel, concurrent sessions, or risky logins 

• Protect against credential theft using FIDO2/WebAuthn and passwordless methods 

Why it works: Prevents attackers from reusing stolen credentials to hop across accounts or systems. 

 

6. Limit Use of Common Lateral Movement Tools 

• Block or restrict use of: 

• Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 

• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) 

• Server Message Block (SMB) 

• Use application control policies to prevent unapproved scripts and executables 

Why it works: These are the tools attackers use to move laterally — limiting them removes key tactics. 

 

7. Monitor and Analyze Network Traffic 

• Deploy tools like Network Detection and Response (NDR) to baseline and monitor internal traffic 

• Alert on unusual peer-to-peer communication, lateral logins, or port scanning 

• Integrate with a SIEM or XDR for real-time correlation and response 

Why it works: Early detection of lateral movement patterns gives you time to contain the breach. 

 

No single tool can prevent lateral movement 100%. The best defense is layered: combine identity controls, segmentation, endpoint monitoring, and real-time enforcement through zero trust. Preventing lateral movement requires constant visibility and rapid response. Cloud-native solutions help accelerate deployment and make it easier to scale these controls across distributed environments—making them especially valuable for today’s hybrid IT landscapes. 

 

How can cloud-native security limit or prevent it, as opposed to other solutions? 

 Cloud-native security limits or prevents lateral movement more effectively than many traditional solutions because it is inherently built to operate in dynamic, distributed, and identity-driven environments. It shifts enforcement away from fixed perimeters and toward real-time context, policy-driven access, and device-awareness across all locations — which are critical in today’s lateral movement scenarios. 

Here’s how cloud-native security specifically addresses lateral movement, and how it differs from legacy or on-prem solutions: 

 

1. Access is Enforced Dynamically, Not Statically 

Cloud-Native Security: 

• Makes real-time access decisions based on user identity, device posture, behavior, and context. 

• Uses Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and NAC to continuously evaluate trust. 

• Prevents compromised devices from moving laterally because access is continuously verified, not granted once and forgotten. 

Legacy/On-Prem Security: 

• Often assumes trust after initial login (e.g., VPN or domain join). 

• Static firewall rules or VLANs allow broad internal access after entry. 

• Lateral movement often goes unseen inside the “trusted” perimeter. 

 

 2. Built for Hybrid, BYOD, and Remote Access 

Cloud-Native: 

• Controls access for any device, on any network, anywhere — ideal for preventing lateral spread across unmanaged or remote endpoints. 

• Applies policy enforcement at the point of connection, not just in the data center. 

Legacy: 

• Often assumes users are on a known network or using corporate-managed devices. 

• Cannot effectively detect or restrict lateral movement between BYOD or remote machines without complex VPN or hardware-based controls. 

 

3. Cloud-Native Tools Use Intelligence and Integration 

Cloud-Native: 

• Integrates easily with EDR, SIEM, MDM, and identity providers to correlate risk across layers. 

• Uses behavior analytics, risk scoring, and posture validation to shut down abnormal internal movement before it spreads. 

Legacy: 

• Limited API access or siloed tools make cross-system correlation difficult. 

• Often lacks behavioral or context-aware enforcement without third-party bolt-ons. 

 

4. Microsegmentation Is Software-Defined and Automated 

Cloud-Native: 

• Solutions like Portnox Cloud automate segmentation without physical firewalls. 

• Policies follow the user or device, not the IP address. 

• Easy to scale without redesigning infrastructure. 

Legacy: 

• Requires hardware firewalls, VLANs, ACLs — complex and hard to scale. 

• Often left flat or overly permissive to reduce operational burden. 

 

5. Continuous Monitoring, Not Point-in-Time Checks 

Cloud-Native: 

• Evaluates trust continuously — if posture or behavior changes, access is revoked or reduced instantly. 

• Devices can be quarantined in real time if EDR or NAC signals indicate risk. 

Legacy: 

• Access often evaluated only at login. 

• No real-time posture awareness or session control. 

• Lateral movement may go undetected for days or weeks. 

 

Summary

 

Final Takeaway 

Cloud-native security doesn’t just prevent external breaches — it prevents attackers from going anywhere once they get in. 

 

It does this by making access conditional, visibility continuous, and enforcement instant — across users, devices, and networks. That makes it one of the most effective defenses against lateral movement, especially for mid-market and modern cloud-first companies.