Compliance & Identity Risk

Lateral movement is the phase of a cyberattack where an adversary navigates from an initial entry point across systems, escalating privileges, and collecting credentials until they reach high-value targets. Most organizations detect lateral movement too late because attackers use valid credentials and native OS tools that generate no unusual signatures. This guide covers how lateral movement works, the specific techniques involved, why shared-device and frontline environments are structurally more exposed, and the identity-first controls that stop it at the source.