Lateral movement doesn’t trigger the usual alarms. Attackers use the same tools and protocols your IT teams use every day. Things like RDP, SMB, or PowerShell. No malware. No exploits. Just legitimate tools used in illegitimate ways.
The problem is visibility. Most defenses focus on perimeter traffic (north-south), not the east-west movement that happens internally between systems. Even when some internal monitoring exists, it’s often siloed. Network data in one tool, systems event logs logs in another, identity activities in a third. That fragmentation makes it extremely challenging for SOC Analysts to see the full story in a meaningful amount of time, to be able to detect such tactics early on, and stop it in its track.
Without the right context, a failed login here and an unusual network connection there don’t look related. But to an attacker, they’re just part of a broader playbook of a campaign.
To detect lateral movement, you need two crucial perspectives:
- Network Detection and Response (NDR) to see the live traffic. Who connected where, when, and how.
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) to add context. Who the user is, what’s normal for them, and how their behavior fits with policy.
When these two come together, something powerful happens. Imagine a workstation connecting to a server it never talks to. On its own, that’s a clear anomaly signal, but still inconclusive if malicious or not. But when correlated with SIEM data showing, just minutes earlier, multiple failed logins from the user logged into that same workstation , it becomes a clear sign of lateral movement.
That’s the value of Logpoint SIEM + NDR. Uniting systems and application event logs, identity activity, and network traffic into one clear picture. No blind spots, no guesswork, no integration headaches. Just insight and action.
An attacker gains initial access through compromised credentials.
They start scanning the network and probing services through subtle, legitimate-looking actions.
Logpoint NDR notifies on an unusual internal traffic pattern. Seconds later, Logpoint SIEM notifies a successive account failing multiple logins across different servers, then succeeding from a new host.
Individually, these are often low-level alerts, buried somewhere at the end of a large alert queue. Together, they tell the story of someone moving laterally.
Instead of piecing it together manually, your analysts see it all in a unified investigation view. They can pivot between logs, network data, and user context instantly, respond early, and stop the attacker before critical systems are reached.
With Logpoint SIEM + NDR, each role in the SOC gets what they need: one platform, one story, one outcome they can trust.
- Expand detection coverage without adding complexity or headcount.
- See what happens between event logs and network, thus understanding the intent behind it.
- Get provable, real and encompassing monitoring that shows compliance and control.
- Reconstruct every move, every login, every transfer, with full confidence in your data.
Detection is only the beginning. By leveraging Logpoint SOAR capabilities, alongside with Logpoint NDR response capabilities, you can automate and orchestrate incident response immediately. Isolating assets, injecting FW rules to block IOCs, locking accounts, enforcing MFA, or resetting passwords in seconds.
In summary, it is all about shifting left in the attack kill chain. Detect as early as possible, and reduce time to respond, aiming to give organizations the right tools and capabilities to stop attacks in its tracks, preventing expansion and therefore cutting the path of a low-level signal event, to transform into a full-blown incident escalation.,
Lateral movement doesn’t have to stay invisible. By uniting event logs and network traffic activity on one platform, Logpoint helps you see the intent early, act fast, and stop attacks before they spread.
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