

In many cases, the attackers connect to the system via RDP and simply disable the security solution. In most cases, during an attack, the attackers try to steal domain account credentials to connect to other systems and move laterally. For example, in an investigation that we conducted last year (in 2022), we determined that an APT group had been in an organization’s network for over three years – all because of a security solution that was outdated and, in addition, had some of its modules disabled.Īnother thing worth keeping in mind is the importance of using proper configurations of security solutions. This is because, in APT attacks, the attackers devote significant resources to evading detection. If a security solution uses outdated databases and doesn’t have access to live cloud services that check the reputations of files and URLs, this can often result in malware spreading freely and uncontrollably.



When an incident occurs, attributing the failure solely to the security solution (by claiming that it overlooked the threat) is unproductive. Threat actors are resourceful and persistent – while something must be rotten in your state, too. But hoping that an automated solution will protect your systems from all threats on its own, without your involvement, is naïve. Sometimes, people responsible for information security do not access the control panel of their security solutions for months. Time and again, while trying to figure out what went wrong, we’ve found numerous issues with the settings and usage of security solutions. ‘Schrödinger’s antivirus’ – it’s kind of there, but not reallyĪt first glance, this is not one of those obvious issues since everybody’s saying, “We have cybersecurity solutions installed everywhere.” However, we know from practice that appearances are deceptive.
