Response When Minutes Matter: RDP — Remote Desktop Pwnage, Part 1

The blog post from CrowdStrike highlights the company's advanced cybersecurity capabilities, detailing how their Falcon Complete managed detection and response (MDR) service effectively dealt with a sophisticated cyber intrusion. Through the use of machine learning detection, the team identified a high-severity threat masquerading as a legitimate Windows utility, which led to the discovery of a broader compromise involving multiple hosts. The investigation revealed that a domain admin account was compromised, facilitating lateral movement across the network via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). CrowdStrike's ability to perform real-time investigation and remediation allowed them to quickly identify and contain the threat, ultimately isolating the initial point of intrusion, known as "patient zero," which had been compromised through a brute-force RDP attack. The post underscores the importance of comprehensive, real-time threat monitoring and the company's proactive approach to cybersecurity.