7 ways to see what attackers hope you miss
In today’s battlefield, you need better visibility into the tools, people and pathways threat actors love to exploit. Here’s where to start.
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Enhance identity visibility before attackers slip in
Stolen credentials remain the most common initial access vector for breaches, with ransomware present in 44% of breaches in 2024. But early visibility into access patterns and credential use helps block lateral movements before attackers can even dream of launching encryptions. Here’s what to do:
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Watch how endpoints behave (not just what runs)
Endpoints are ground zero. Without visibility into how applications and processes behave, ransomware can spread unnoticed. And because endpoints are often the most diverse and loosely managed part of the environment—rife with overlooked assets, outdated systems and inconsistent controls—they can be a hotbed for cybercriminal activity.
- Identify any overlooked assets like legacy systems and containers. When done with a complete Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution, this can help eliminate easy hiding spots for bad actors.
- Apply monitoring and controls to your applications to allow only trusted applications to run, block the rest and shrink your attack surface.
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Shed light on your network to spot lateral movement early
If you can’t see how ransomware moves through your network, you can’t stop it. Ask yourself: is lateral movement being fully monitored—or just at the perimeter?
- Use deep inspections and advanced analytics to expose threats between segments, not just at the edge.
- Make use of real-time inspection across your entire network. Security Service Edge (SSE) solutions (especially ones integrated with SWG, ZTNA and CASB) can help here by monitoring traffic across users, apps and data flows, no matter where they live.
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Extend visibility to cloud workloads or anywhere your data lives
Ransomware will hunt down your data—wherever it lives or moves. If you’re not watching your cloud closely, your apps are open for hunting season. Human error—behind 95% of data breaches—make cloud workflows especially vulnerable.
- Don’t overlook any risky activity happening between apps, users and data, and scan for malicious content and misconfigurations before attackers can exploit them.
- Equip your teams with DLP to secure your sensitive assets and cloud-hosted applications.
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Watch your data like a hawk (that never blinks)
We all know data is the prize, so taking your eyes off it? Bad move. You’ll want continuous visibility into how your data moves, who’s accessing it and whether it’s breaking any rules.
- Track sensitive data in transit and at rest to catch policy violations or exfiltration fast.
- Keep data classified to simplify flagging abnormal data access, enforce policies and reduce false positives.
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Look at the bigger picture when monitoring communication
Email is still one of ransomware’s top entry points, and all it takes is one missed warning sign to let the bad guys in. Visibility across every layer of communication (even the small stuff) can prevent that first domino from falling.
- Scan for abnormal user behaviors that might indicate phishing, spoofing (including echospoofing that bypasses authentication) and malicious attachments.
- Encrypt messages in transit, even when recipients don’t use PGP, PDP or S/MIME, with password-protected PDFs or secure web portal delivery.
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Stay ahead of attackers before they reach you
Attackers constantly update their playbooks to break through yesterday’s defenses. Staying current with their latest tactics can help you better visualize the full attack kill chain and cut them off before they can escalate.