In the past year, cross-domain attacks have gained prominence as an emerging tactic among adversaries. These operations exploit weak points across multiple domains – including endpoints, identity systems and cloud environments – so the adversary can infiltrate organizations, move laterally and evade detection. eCrime groups like SCATTERED SPIDER and North Korea-nexus adversaries such as FAMOUS CHOLLIMA exemplify the use of cross-domain tactics, leveraging advanced techniques to exploit security gaps across interconnected environments.
The foundation of these attacks is built around the exploitation of legitimate identities. Today’s adversaries no longer “break in”; they “log in” – leveraging compromised credentials to gain access and blend seamlessly into their targets. Once inside, they exploit legitimate tools and processes, making them difficult to detect as they pivot across domains and escalate privileges.
The Current State of Identity Security
The rise in cross-domain and identity-based attacks exposes a critical vulnerability in organizations that treat identity security as an afterthought or compliance checkbox rather than an integral component of their security architecture. Many businesses rely on disjointed tools that address only fragments of the identity problem, resulting in visibility gaps and operational inefficiencies. This patchwork approach fails to provide a cohesive view or secure the broader identity landscape effectively.
This approach creates gaps in security tools, but also can create a dangerous disconnect between security teams. For example, the divide between teams managing identity and access management (IAM) tools and those running security operations creates dangerous visibility gaps and exposes weaknesses in security architecture across on-premises and cloud environments. Adversaries exploit these gaps to perpetrate their attacks. Organizations need a more comprehensive approach to defend against these sophisticated attacks.
Transforming Identity Security: Three Essential Steps
To protect against cross-domain attacks, organizations just move beyond patchwork solutions and adopt a unified, comprehensive strategy that prioritizes identity security:
1. Identity at the Core: Laying the Foundation
Modern security begins with consolidating threat detection and response across identity, endpoint and cloud within a unified platform. By placing identity at the core, this approach eliminates the inefficiencies of fragmented tools and creates a cohesive foundation for comprehensive defense. A unified platform accelerates response time and simplifies security operations. It also reduces cost by improving collaboration across teams and replacing disconnected point solutions with a streamlined architecture that secures identity against cross-domain threats.
2. Identity Visibility: Seeing the Whole Picture
Robust identity protection requires end-to-end visibility across hybrid environments spanning on-premises, cloud and SaaS applications. Unifying security tools eliminates blind spots and gaps that adversaries like to exploit. Seamless integration with on-premises directories, cloud identity providers like Entra ID and Okta, and SaaS applications ensures a complete view of all access points. This full-spectrum visibility transforms identity systems into fortified perimeters, significantly reducing adversaries’ ability to infiltrate.
3. Real-Time Identity Protection
With identity as a focal point of unification and visibility, organizations can pivot to real-time detection and response. A cloud-native platform, like the AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon® cybersecurity platform, uses cross-domain telemetry to secure identity, endpoints and cloud environments by identifying, investigating and neutralizing threats. Features like risk-based conditional access and behavioral analysis proactively protect identity systems, blocking attacks before they escalate. This unified approach ensures faster responses than fragmented systems and a decisive edge against modern adversaries.
Putting Identity into Practice: CrowdStrike Falcon Identity Protection
When it comes to comprehensive protection against cross-domain attacks, CrowdStrike sets the industry standard with the Falcon platform. It uniquely combines identity, endpoint and cloud security with world-class threat intelligence on adversary tradecraft and real-time threat hunting for a holistic defense against identity-based attacks. CrowdStrike’s approach relies on:
- Unification: The Falcon platform enables security teams to oversee all layers of security – identity threat detection and response (ITDR), endpoint security, cloud security, and next-gen security information and event management (SIEM) – all through a single agent and console on one unified platform. With the Falcon platform, CrowdStrike customers on average realize up to 84% improvement in operational efficiency in responding to cross-domain threats.
- 24/7 Visibility with Managed ITDR: Many organizations facing resource constraints turn to managed service providers to handle security operations. CrowdStrike provides the best of both worlds – pairing top-tier ITDR capabilities with industry-leading expert management – to implement a robust and mature identity security program without the work, cost and time required to develop one internally.
- Real-Time Protection: With CrowdStrike Falcon® Identity Protection, organizations can detect and stop identity-driven breaches in real-time across entire hybrid identity landscapes. CrowdStrike’s industry-leading team of elite threat hunters monitor 24/7 for suspicious activity across customers’ environments and proactively scour the dark web for stolen credentials. CrowdStrike customers on average get up to 85% faster threat responses driven by full attack path visibility.
The Future of Identity Security
As adversaries exploit the seams between identity, endpoint and cloud environments, the need for a unified security approach has never been greater. The CrowdStrike Falcon platform delivers the integration, visibility and real-time response capabilities necessary to combat cross-domain threats head-on. By combining cutting-edge technology with world-class threat intelligence and expert management, CrowdStrike enables organizations to fortify their defenses and stay ahead of evolving attack tactics.