Network Lateral Movement, or simply Lateral Movement, refers to the techniques that cyber attackers, or

threat actor A threat actor or malicious actor is either a person or a group of people that take part in an action that is intended to cause harm to the cyber realm including: computers, devices, systems, or networks. The term is typically used to describe in ...

s, use to progressively move through a

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

as they search for the key data and assets that are ultimately the target of their attack campaigns.Lateral Movement: When Cyber Attacks Go Sideways
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/ref> While development of more sophisticated sequences of attack has helped threat actors develop better strategies and evade detection as compared to the past, similar to planning a

heist A heist is a robbery or burglary, especially from an institution such as a bank or museum. Heist may also refer to: Places *Heist, Germany, a municipality in Schleswig-Holstein *Heist-aan-Zee, West Flanders, Belgium *Heist-op-den-Berg, Antwerp, ...

, cyber defenders have also learned to use lateral movement against attackers in that they use it to detect their location and respond more effectively to an attack.

References

Cybercrime {{security-stub