What is Lateral Movement?

Understanding Lateral Movement

Lateral Movement describes how attackers navigate through your network after they've gained initial access. Instead of going deeper into the initially compromised system, they move sideways to other machines or accounts within the same network. Think of it like a burglar who breaks into one apartment, then uses the hallways to check all the other apartments in the building. Attackers do this because their initial point of entry rarely gives them access to their ultimate target—the valuable data or systems they're after. They might use legitimate admin tools, stolen credentials, or exploit trust relationships between systems. What makes lateral movement so tricky to detect is that it often looks like normal network traffic or administrator activity. The best defense combines network segmentation, the principle of least privilege, and behavior-based monitoring to spot unusual patterns of movement across systems.