Lateral movement and persistence are two advanced tactics used by attackers after they have initially breached an organization’s defenses. These techniques allow attackers to expand their reach within the network, access valuable assets, and maintain a foothold for extended periods, enabling them to evade detection and execute long-term attacks.

1. Lateral Movement: Once an attacker has gained initial access, often with limited privileges, they attempt to move laterally across the network to access additional systems, applications, or data. Lateral movement involves the use of various techniques, such as credential theft, exploiting trust relationships between systems, and leveraging legitimate administrative tools (e.g., PowerShell, PsExec) to avoid detection. The goal is to escalate privileges and reach critical systems, like domain controllers, databases, or other sensitive resources. By moving laterally, attackers gain deeper access and increase the potential damage they can cause.

2. Persistence: Persistence techniques are used by attackers to ensure continued access to compromised systems even if the initial vulnerability is patched or user credentials are changed. Attackers establish backdoors, schedule tasks, create rogue accounts, or install rootkits and malicious scripts to maintain access and survive system reboots or security improvements. Persistence is especially important for long-term attacks, such as advanced persistent threats (APTs), where the attacker intends to remain undetected for extended periods, collecting valuable information or setting up for future attacks.

Defending against lateral movement and persistence requires a combination of security controls and practices, including network segmentation, strong access controls, regular credential audits, and privileged account management (PAM). Endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools can help detect abnormal patterns and unauthorized access attempts, while logging and monitoring tools provide visibility into unusual network behavior. By actively identifying and disrupting these tactics, organizations can contain attacks early, preventing further escalation and reducing the risk of long-term compromise.