How EDR Stops Lateral Movement Across the Enterprise
See how attackers move undetected once they’re past the perimeter, and what stops them
Getting In Isn't the Hard Part for Attackers, Moving Around Is
Most security budgets go toward keeping attackers out, yet the 2025 Verizon DBIR found stolen credentials were the leading cause of breaches for the second year running, showing up in 22% of cases. Once inside, attackers look like just another employee logging in, and lateral movement, quietly working from a single workstation toward a domain controller, is where most tools stop seeing them. The average breach now takes 241 days to identify and contain, and breaches past 200 days cost an extra $1.14 million on top of an already steep bill. Ransomware, now present in 44% of breaches, rarely detonates the moment attackers get in; they spend that time mapping the network first.
Why Firewalls and Antivirus Miss This
Firewalls can’t see inside encrypted traffic between internal machines. Antivirus looks for known bad files, but most lateral movement tools are built from legitimate system software already on every endpoint. CISA’s own advisories have documented federal breaches where attacker activity went unnoticed for weeks, even with security tools deployed elsewhere in the network.
What's Inside
- How credential theft, living-off-the-land techniques, and third-party access create the openings attackers use to move sideways undetected
- A breakdown of real lateral movement techniques (pass-the-hash, LSASS memory access, remote services) mapped to what EDR looks for at the endpoint
- Why detection speed has a direct dollar cost, and what IBM's breach cost data shows about the price of slow containment
- The four capabilities that separate an effective EDR deployment from an incomplete one
- How EDR fits alongside identity controls, network segmentation, and deception technology in a layered defense
How Fidelis Endpoint® gives analysts the visibility, containment, and threat-hunting tools to catch lateral movement before it becomes a full breach
Get the full guide to understand why stopping attackers at the perimeter was never the whole job, and what it takes to catch them once they’re already inside.