Detection and Early Indicators

Ransomware operators spend hours or days inside a network before encrypting. This dwell time is your detection window. Catching the intrusion during reconnaissance or lateral movement lets you contain it before any files are locked.

Detection focuses on behavior, not just signatures, because attackers abuse legitimate tools to stay quiet.

Early indicators often appear at the perimeter and identity layer:

• Successful logins from unusual geographies or impossible travel
• A spike in failed RDP or VPN attempts (brute force)
• New external connections from internet-facing servers
• A user reporting a phishing email after clicking

Correlating identity logs with network data surfaces these before the attacker digs in.