IR and MDR Cases Highlight Attackers Are Exfiltrating Data in Just Three Days

Compromised Credentials Top Root Causes for Second Year

OXFORD, U.K. — 四月 2, 2025 —

Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today released the 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report, which details attacker behavior and techniques from over 400 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and Incident Response (IR) cases in 2024. The report found that the primary way attackers gained initial access to networks (56% of all cases across MDR and IR) was by exploiting external remote services, which includes edge devices such as firewalls and VPNs, by leveraging valid accounts.

The combination of external remote services and valid accounts aligns with the top root causes of attacks. For the second year in row, compromised credentials were the number one root cause of attacks (41% of cases). This was followed by exploited vulnerabilities (21.79%) and brute force attacks (21.07%).

Understanding The Speed of Attacks

When analyzing MDR and IR investigations, the Sophos X-Ops team looked specifically at ransomware, data exfiltration, and data extortion cases to identify how fast attackers progressed through the stages of an attack within an organization. In those three types of cases, the median time between the start of an attack and exfiltration was only 72.98 hours (3.04 days). Furthermore, there was only a median of 2.7 hours from exfiltration to attack detection.

“Passive security is no longer enough. While prevention is essential, rapid response is critical. Organizations must actively monitor networks and act swiftly against observed telemetry. Coordinated attacks by motivated adversaries require a coordinated defense. For many organizations, that means combining business-specific knowledge with expert-led detection and response. Our report confirms that organizations with proactive monitoring detect attacks faster and experience better outcomes,” said John Shier, field CISO.

Other Key Findings from the 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report:

  • Attackers Can Take Control of a System in Just 11 Hours: The median time between attackers’ initial action and their first (often successful) attempt to breach Active Directory (AD) - arguably one of the most important assets in any Windows network – was just 11 hours. If successful, attackers can more easily take control of the organization.
  • Top Ransomware Groups in Sophos Cases: Akira was the most frequently encountered ransomware group in 2024, followed by Fog and LockBit (despite a multi-government takedown of LockBit earlier in the year).
  • Dwell Time is Down to Just 2 Days: Overall, dwell time – the time from the start of an attack to when it is detected – decreased from 4 days to just 2 in 2024, largely due to the addition of MDR cases to the dataset.
  • Dwell Time in IR Cases: Dwell time remained stable at 4 days for ransomware attacks and 11.5 days for non-ransomware cases. 
  • Dwell Time in MDR Cases: In MDR investigations, dwell time was only 3 days for ransomware cases and just 1 day for non-ransomware cases, suggesting MDR teams are able to more quickly detect and respond to attacks.
  • Ransomware Groups Work Overnight: In 2024, 83% of ransomware binaries were dropped outside of the targets’ local business hours.
  • Remote Desktop Protocol Continues to Dominate: RDP was involved in 84% of MDR/IR cases, making it the most frequently abused Microsoft tool.

To shore up their defenses, Sophos recommends that companies do the following:

  • Close exposed RDP ports
  • Use phishing-resistant multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever possible
  • Patch vulnerable systems in a timely manner, with a particular focus on internet-facing devices and services
  • Deploy EDR or MDR and ensure it is proactively monitored 24/7
  • Establish a comprehensive incident response plan and test it regularly through simulations or tabletop exercises

Read the full It Takes Two: The 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report on Sophos.com.

关于 Sophos

Sophos 是全球领先的先进安全解决方案提供商和创新者,全面安全解决方案涵盖托管式侦测与响应 (MDR) 和事件响应服务,以及广泛的端点、网络、电子邮件和云安全技术。作为最大的纯网络安全厂商之一,Sophos 为全球超过 600,000 家企业和超过 1 亿用户提供防御主动攻击对手、勒索软件、网络钓鱼、恶意软件等威胁的保护。Sophos 的服务和产品通过 Sophos Central 管理控制台连接,并得到公司内部的跨领域威胁情报部门 Sophos X-Ops 的支持。Sophos X-Ops 情报优化整个 Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem 自适应网络安全生态体系,包括一个中央数据湖,为客户、合作伙伴、开发人员和其他网络安全与信息技术供应商提供一组丰富的开放 API。Sophos为需要完全托管的安全解决方案的组织提供网络安全即服务。客户还可以直接利用 Sophos 的安全运行平台管理其网络安全,或者采用混合方法,为内部团队补充 Sophos 服务(包括威胁追踪与修复)。Sophos 通过世界各地的经销商合作伙伴和托管服务供应商 (MSP) 销售。Sophos 总部位于英国牛津。如欲了解更多信息,请访问 www.sophos.com