Anatomy of a Lazarus Group Attack

Vectra AI vs.
Spear Phishing

What happens when a state-sponsored cybercrime group targets an employee on social media, navigates through zero trust, installs C2 and swipes admin credentials from inside your environment? We simulated a Lazarus Group attack to find out.

How Vectra AI exposed an active spear phishing attack

In this simulated Lazarus Group attack, defenders were put on the spot after threat actors compromised a corporate laptop and set up persistent access. With AI-driven Attack Signal Intelligence to automatically correlate detections across each attack surface, defenders knew exactly where to focus efforts.

The attacker:

Targets employee on LinkedIn
Gains data center access
Installs command and control (C2) infrastructure
Begins looking for proprietary research data

Defenders know:

Where hidden tunnels are set up
Which identities are impacted
What response actions to take

Response time

First Vectra Alert

5:02 A.M

Attack Stopped

5:22 A.M

Find the targeted attacks other solutions miss

The secret to stopping spear phishing attacks? Attack Signal Intelligence™. Vectra AI’s patented AI-driven signal empowers defenders leveraging the Vectra AI Platform to move at the speed and scale of modern attackers — including Lazarus Group attacks targeting proprietary information.

References in MITRE D3FEND

90%

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

AI threat detection patents

Sharpen your investigation and threat hunting skills

Join our ensemble of security researchers, data scientists and analysts as we share over 11+ years of security-AI research and expertise with the global cybersecurity community. Through our webinars and hands-on labs, you’ll learn how to effectively leverage AI for threat detection and response and expose sophisticated attacks hiding in your environment.

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With Vectra AI, Lazarus Group attackers don't stand a chance

Secure web gateway, firewalls, IPS and other tools may not stop threat actors from gaining access. But with a platform powered by Attack Signal Intelligence, you can keep them from progressing. Attack Signal Intelligence detects and prioritizes:

Hidden HTTPS Tunnel

File Share Enumeration

Outbound Port Sweep

Azure AD Privilege Operation Anomaly

Prioritizing tactics for Lazarus Group

This simulated attack was initiated through a spear phishing scam on LinkedIn.
Threat actors hid inside encryption and were able to pivot past zero trust network access (ZTNA) to make their way into the network data center.
Command and control enabled recon and once credentials were attained, attackers progressed further towards their target.
Defenders took immediate action with an attack signal that prioritizes attacker TTPs across the environment.