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August 22, 2023

Darktrace’s Detection of Unattributed Ransomware

Leveraging anomaly-based detection, we successfully identified an ongoing ransomware attack on the network of a customer and the activity that preceded it.
Inside the SOC
Darktrace cyber analysts are world-class experts in threat intelligence, threat hunting and incident response, and provide 24/7 SOC support to thousands of Darktrace customers around the globe. Inside the SOC is exclusively authored by these experts, providing analysis of cyber incidents and threat trends, based on real-world experience in the field.
Written by
Natalia Sánchez Rocafort
Cyber Security Analyst
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22
Aug 2023

In the current threat landscape, much of the conversation around ransomware focusses on high-profile strains and notorious threat groups. While organizations and their security teams are justified in these concerns, it is important not to underestimate the danger posed by smaller scale, unattributed ransomware attacks.

Unlike attributed ransomware strains, there are often no playbooks or lists of previously observed indicators of compromise (IoCs) that security teams can consult to help them shore up their cyber defenses. As such, anomaly detection is critical to ensure that emerging threats can be detected based on their abnormality on the network, rather than relying heavily on threat intelligence.

In mid-March 2023, a Darktrace customer requested analytical support from the Darktrace Security Operations Center (SOC) after they had been hit by a ransomware attack a few hours earlier. Darktrace was able to uncover a myriad of malicious activity that preceded the eventual ransomware deployment, ultimately assisting the customer to identify compromised devices and contain the ransomware attack.

Attack Overview

While there were a small number of endpoints that had been flagged as malicious by open-source intelligence (OSINT), Darktrace DETECT™ focused on the unusualness of the activity surrounding this emerging ransomware attack. This provided unparalleled visibility over this ransomware attack at every stage of the cyber kill chain, whilst also revealing the potential origins of the compromise which came months area.

Initial Compromise

Initial investigation revealed that several devices that Darktrace were observed performing suspicious activity had previously engaged in anomalous behavior several months before the ransomware event, indicating this could be a part of a repeated compromise or the result of initial access brokers.

Most notably, in late January 2023 there was a spike in unusual activity when some of the affected devices were observed performing activity indicative of network and device scanning.

Darktrace DETECT identified some of the devices establishing unusually high volumes of internal failed connections via TCP and UDP, and the SMB protocol. Various key ports, such as 135, 139, and 445, were also scanned.

Due to the number of affected devices, the exact initial attack vector is unclear; however, one likely scenario is associated with an internet-facing DNS server. Towards the end of January 2023, the server began to receive unusual TCP DNS requests from the rare external endpoint, 103.203.59[.]3, which had been flagged as potentially malicious by OSINT [4]. Based on a portion of the hostname of the device, dc01, we can assume that this server served as a gateway to the domain controller. If a domain controller is compromised, a malicious actor would gain access to usernames and passwords within a network allowing attackers to obtain administrative-level access to an organization’s digital estate.

Around the same time as the unusual TCP DNS requests, Darktrace DETECT observed the domain controller engaging in further suspicious activity. As demonstrated in Figure 1, Darktrace recognized that this server was not responding to common requests from multiple internal devices, as it would be expected to. Following this, the device was observed carrying out new or uncommon Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) activity. WMI is typically used by network administrators to manage remote and local Windows systems [3].

Figure 1: Device event log depicting the possible Initial attack vector.


Had Darktrace RESPOND™ been enabled in autonomous response mode, it would have to blocked connections originating from the compromised internal devices as soon as they were detected, while also limiting affected devices to their pre-established patterns of file to prevent them from carrying out any further malicious activity.

Darktrace subsequently observed multiple devices establishing various chains of connections that are indicative of lateral movement activity, such as unusual internal RDP and WMI requests. While there may be devices within an organization that do regularly partake these types of connections, Darktrace recognized that this activity was extremely unusual for these devices.

Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI allows for a deep understanding of customer networks and the devices within them. It’s anomaly-based threat detection capability enables it to recognize subtle deviations in a device’s normal patterns of behavior, without depending on known IoCs or signatures and rules to guide it.

Figure 2: Observed chain of possible lateral movement.


Persistence

Darktrace DETECT observed several affected devices communicating with rare external endpoints that had also been flagged as potentially malicious by OSINT tools. Multiple devices were observed performing activity indicative of NTLM brute-forcing activity, as seen in the Figure 3 which highlights the event log of the aforementioned domain controller. Said domain controller continuously engaged in anomalous behavior throughout the course of the attack. The same device was seen using a potentially compromise credential, ‘cvd’, which was observed via an SMB login event.

Figure 3: Continued unusual external connectivity.


Affected devices, including the domain controller, continued to engage in consistent communication with the endpoints prior to the actual ransomware attack. Darktrace identified that some of these malicious endpoints had likely been generated by Domain Generation Algorithms (DGA), a classic tactic utilized by threat actors. Subsequent OSINT investigation revealed that one such domain had been associated with malware such as TrojanDownloader:Win32/Upatre!rfn [5].

All external engagements were observed by Darktrace DETECT and would have been actioned on by Darktrace RESPOND, had it been configured in autonomous response mode. It would have blocked any suspicious outgoing connections originating from the compromised devices, thus preventing additional external engagement from taking place. Darktrace RESPOND works in tandem with DETECT to autonomously take action against suspicious activity based on its unusualness, rather than relying on static lists of ‘known-bads’ or malicious IoCs.

Reconnaissance

On March 14, 2023, a few days before the ransomware attack, Darktrace observed multiple internal devices failing to establish connections in a manner that suggests SMB, RDP and network scanning. Among these devices once more was the domain controller, which was seen performing potential SMB brute-forcing, representing yet another example of malicious activity carried out by this device.

Lateral Movement

Immediately prior to the attack, many compromised devices were observed mobilizing to conduct an array of high-severity lateral movement activity. Darktrace detected one device using two administrative credentials, namely ‘Administrator’ and ‘administrator’, while it also observed a notable spike in the volume of successful SMB connections from the device around the same time.

At this point, Darktrace DETECT was observing the progression of this attack along the cyber kill chain. What had started as internal recognisance, had escalated to exploitation and ensuing command-and-control activity. Following an SMB brute-force attempt, Darktrace DETECT identified a successful DCSync attack.

A DCSync attack occurs when a malicious actor impersonates a domain controller in an effort to gather sensitive information, such as user credentials and passwords hashes, by replicating directory services [1]. In this case, a device sent various successful DRSGetNCChanges operation requests to the DRSUAPI endpoint.

Data Exfiltration

Around the same time, Darktrace detected the compromised server transferring a high volume of data to rare external endpoints associated with Bublup, a third-party project management application used to save and share files. Although the actors attempted to avoid the detection of security tools by using a legitimate file storage service, Darktrace understood that this activity represented a deviation in this device’s expected pattern of life.

In one instance, around 8 GB of data was transferred, and in another, over 4 GB, indicating threat actors were employing a tactic known as ‘low and slow’ exfiltration whereby data is exfiltrated in small quantities via multiple connections, in an effort to mask their suspicious activity. While this tactic may have evaded the detection of traditional security measures, Darktrace’s anomaly-based detection allowed it to recognize that these two incidents represented a wider exfiltration event, rather than viewing the transfers in isolation.

Impact

Finally, Darktrace began to observe a large amount of suspicious SMB activity on the affected devices, most of which was SMB file encryption. DETECT observed the file extension ‘uw9nmvw’ being appended to many files across various internal shares and devices. In addition to this, a potential ransom note, ‘RECOVER-uw9nmvw-FILES.txt’, was detected on the network shortly after the start of the attack.

Figure 4: Depiction of the high-volume of suspicious SMB activity, including file encryption.


Conclusion

Ultimately, this incident show cases how Darktrace was able to successfully identify an emerging ransomware attack using its unrivalled anomaly-based detection capabilities, without having to rely on any previously established threat intelligence. Not only was Darktrace DETECT able to identify the ransomware at multiple stages of the kill chain, but it was also able to uncover the anomalous activity that took place in the buildup to the attack itself.

As the attack progressed along the cyber kill chain, escalating in severity at every juncture, DETECT was able to provide full visibility over the events. Through the successful identification of compromised devices, anomalous administrative credentials usage and encrypted files, Darktrace was able to greatly assist the customer, ensuring they were well-equipped to contain the incident and begin their incident management process.

Darktrace would have been able to aid the customer even further had they enabled its autonomous response technology on their network. Darktrace RESPOND would have taken targeted, mitigative action as soon as suspicious activity was detected, preventing the malicious actors from achieving their goals.

Credit to: Natalia Sánchez Rocafort, Cyber Security Analyst, Patrick Anjos, Senior Cyber Analyst.

MITRE Tactics/Techniques Mapping

RECONNAISSANCE

Scanning IP Blocks  (T1595.001)

RECONNAISSANCE

Vulnerability Scanning  (T1595.002)

IMPACT

Service Stop  (T1489)

LATERAL MOVEMENT

Taint Shared Content (T1080)

IMPACT

Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486)

INITIAL ACCESS

Replication Through Removable Media (T1200)

DEFENSE EVASION

Rogue Domain Controller (T1207)

COMMAND AND CONTROL

Domain Generation Algorithms (T1568.002)

EXECUTION

Windows Management Instrumentation (T1047)

INITIAL ACCESS

Phishing (T1190)

EXFILTRATION

Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041)

IoC Table

IoC ----------- TYPE ------------- DESCRIPTION + PROBABILITY

CVD --------- credentials -------- Possible compromised credential

.UW9NMVW - File extension ----- Possible appended file extension

RECOVER-UW9NMVW-FILES.TXT - Ransom note - Possible ransom note observed

84.32.188[.]186 - IP address ------ C2 Endpoint

AS.EXECSVCT[.]COM - Hostname - C2 Endpoint

ZX.EXECSVCT[.]COM - Hostname - C2 Endpoint

QW.EXECSVCT[.]COM - Hostname - C2 Endpoint

EXECSVCT[.]COM - Hostname ------ C2 Endpoint

15.197.130[.]221 --- IP address ------ C2 Endpoint

AS59642 UAB CHERRY SERVERS - ASN - Possible ASN associated with C2 Endpoints

108.156.28[.]43

108.156.28[.]22

52.84.93[.]26

52.217.131[.]241

54.231.193[.]89 - IP addresses - Possible IP addresses associated with data exfiltration

103.203.59[.]3 -IP address ---- Possible IP address associated with initial attack vector

References:

[1] https://blog.netwrix.com/2021/11/30/what-is-dcsync-an-introduction/

[2] https://www.easeus.com/computer-instruction/delete-system32.html#:~:text=System32%20is%20a%20folder%20on,DLL%20files%2C%20and%20EXE%20files.

[3] https://www.techtarget.com/searchwindowsserver/definition/Windows-Management-Instrumentation#:~:text=WMI%20provides%20users%20with%20information,operational%20environments%2C%20including%20remote%20systems.

[4] https://www.virustotal.com/gui/ip-address/103.203.59[.]3

[5] https://otx.alienvault.com/indicator/ip/15.197.130[.]221

Inside the SOC
Darktrace cyber analysts are world-class experts in threat intelligence, threat hunting and incident response, and provide 24/7 SOC support to thousands of Darktrace customers around the globe. Inside the SOC is exclusively authored by these experts, providing analysis of cyber incidents and threat trends, based on real-world experience in the field.
Written by
Natalia Sánchez Rocafort
Cyber Security Analyst

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July 17, 2025

Introducing the AI Maturity Model for Cybersecurity

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AI adoption in cybersecurity: Beyond the hype

Security operations today face a paradox. On one hand, artificial intelligence (AI) promises sweeping transformation from automating routine tasks to augmenting threat detection and response. On the other hand, security leaders are under immense pressure to separate meaningful innovation from vendor hype.

To help CISOs and security teams navigate this landscape, we’ve developed the most in-depth and actionable AI Maturity Model in the industry. Built in collaboration with AI and cybersecurity experts, this framework provides a structured path to understanding, measuring, and advancing AI adoption across the security lifecycle.

Overview of AI maturity levels in cybersecurity

Why a maturity model? And why now?

In our conversations and research with security leaders, a recurring theme has emerged:

There’s no shortage of AI solutions, but there is a shortage of clarity and understanding of AI uses cases.

In fact, Gartner estimates that “by 2027, over 40% of Agentic AI projects will be canceled due to escalating costs, unclear business value, or inadequate risk controls. Teams are experimenting, but many aren’t seeing meaningful outcomes. The need for a standardized way to evaluate progress and make informed investments has never been greater.

That’s why we created the AI Security Maturity Model, a strategic framework that:

  • Defines five clear levels of AI maturity, from manual processes (L0) to full AI Delegation (L4)
  • Delineating the outcomes derived between Agentic GenAI and Specialized AI Agent Systems
  • Applies across core functions such as risk management, threat detection, alert triage, and incident response
  • Links AI maturity to real-world outcomes like reduced risk, improved efficiency, and scalable operations

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How is maturity assessed in this model?

The AI Maturity Model for Cybersecurity is grounded in operational insights from nearly 10,000 global deployments of Darktrace's Self-Learning AI and Cyber AI Analyst. Rather than relying on abstract theory or vendor benchmarks, the model reflects what security teams are actually doing, where AI is being adopted, how it's being used, and what outcomes it’s delivering.

This real-world foundation allows the model to offer a practical, experience-based view of AI maturity. It helps teams assess their current state and identify realistic next steps based on how organizations like theirs are evolving.

Why Darktrace?

AI has been central to Darktrace’s mission since its inception in 2013, not just as a feature, but the foundation. With over a decade of experience building and deploying AI in real-world security environments, we’ve learned where it works, where it doesn’t, and how to get the most value from it. This model reflects that insight, helping security leaders find the right path forward for their people, processes, and tools

Security teams today are asking big, important questions:

  • What should we actually use AI for?
  • How are other teams using it — and what’s working?
  • What are vendors offering, and what’s just hype?
  • Will AI ever replace people in the SOC?

These questions are valid, and they’re not always easy to answer. That’s why we created this model: to help security leaders move past buzzwords and build a clear, realistic plan for applying AI across the SOC.

The structure: From experimentation to autonomy

The model outlines five levels of maturity :

L0 – Manual Operations: Processes are mostly manual with limited automation of some tasks.

L1 – Automation Rules: Manually maintained or externally-sourced automation rules and logic are used wherever possible.

L2 – AI Assistance: AI assists research but is not trusted to make good decisions. This includes GenAI agents requiring manual oversight for errors.

L3 – AI Collaboration: Specialized cybersecurity AI agent systems  with business technology context are trusted with specific tasks and decisions. GenAI has limited uses where errors are acceptable.

L4 – AI Delegation: Specialized AI agent systems with far wider business operations and impact context perform most cybersecurity tasks and decisions independently, with only high-level oversight needed.

Each level reflects a shift, not only in technology, but in people and processes. As AI matures, analysts evolve from executors to strategic overseers.

Strategic benefits for security leaders

The maturity model isn’t just about technology adoption it’s about aligning AI investments with measurable operational outcomes. Here’s what it enables:

SOC fatigue is real, and AI can help

Most teams still struggle with alert volume, investigation delays, and reactive processes. AI adoption is inconsistent and often siloed. When integrated well, AI can make a meaningful difference in making security teams more effective

GenAI is error prone, requiring strong human oversight

While there is a lot of hype around GenAI agentic systems, teams will need to account for inaccuracy and hallucination in Agentic GenAI systems.

AI’s real value lies in progression

The biggest gains don’t come from isolated use cases, but from integrating AI across the lifecycle, from preparation through detection to containment and recovery.

Trust and oversight are key initially but evolves in later levels

Early-stage adoption keeps humans fully in control. By L3 and L4, AI systems act independently within defined bounds, freeing humans for strategic oversight.

People’s roles shift meaningfully

As AI matures, analyst roles consolidate and elevate from labor intensive task execution to high-value decision-making, focusing on critical, high business impact activities, improving processes and AI governance.

Outcome, not hype, defines maturity

AI maturity isn’t about tech presence, it’s about measurable impact on risk reduction, response time, and operational resilience.

[related-resource]

Outcomes across the AI Security Maturity Model

The Security Organization experiences an evolution of cybersecurity outcomes as teams progress from manual operations to AI delegation. Each level represents a step-change in efficiency, accuracy, and strategic value.

L0 – Manual Operations

At this stage, analysts manually handle triage, investigation, patching, and reporting manually using basic, non-automated tools. The result is reactive, labor-intensive operations where most alerts go uninvestigated and risk management remains inconsistent.

L1 – Automation Rules

At this stage, analysts manage rule-based automation tools like SOAR and XDR, which offer some efficiency gains but still require constant tuning. Operations remain constrained by human bandwidth and predefined workflows.

L2 – AI Assistance

At this stage, AI assists with research, summarization, and triage, reducing analyst workload but requiring close oversight due to potential errors. Detection improves, but trust in autonomous decision-making remains limited.

L3 – AI Collaboration

At this stage, AI performs full investigations and recommends actions, while analysts focus on high-risk decisions and refining detection strategies. Purpose-built agentic AI systems with business context are trusted with specific tasks, improving precision and prioritization.

L4 – AI Delegation

At this stage, Specialized AI Agent Systems performs most security tasks independently at machine speed, while human teams provide high-level strategic oversight. This means the highest time and effort commitment activities by the human security team is focused on proactive activities while AI handles routine cybersecurity tasks

Specialized AI Agent Systems operate with deep business context including impact context to drive fast, effective decisions.

Join the webinar

Get a look at the minds shaping this model by joining our upcoming webinar using this link. We’ll walk through real use cases, share lessons learned from the field, and show how security teams are navigating the path to operational AI safely, strategically, and successfully.

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July 17, 2025

Forensics or Fauxrensics: Five Core Capabilities for Cloud Forensics and Incident Response

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The speed and scale at which new cloud resources can be spun up has resulted in uncontrolled deployments, misconfigurations, and security risks. It has had security teams racing to secure their business’ rapid migration from traditional on-premises environments to the cloud.

While many organizations have successfully extended their prevention and detection capabilities to the cloud, they are now experiencing another major gap: forensics and incident response.

Once something bad has been identified, understanding its true scope and impact is nearly impossible at times. The proliferation of cloud resources across a multitude of cloud providers, and the addition of container and serverless capabilities all add to the complexities. It’s clear that organizations need a better way to manage cloud incident response.

Security teams are looking to move past their homegrown solutions and open-source tools to incorporate real cloud forensics capabilities. However, with the increased buzz around cloud forensics, it can be challenging to decipher what is real cloud forensics, and what is “fauxrensics.”

This blog covers the five core capabilities that security teams should consider when evaluating a cloud forensics and incident response solution.

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1. Depth of data

There have been many conversations among the security community about whether cloud forensics is just log analysis. The reality, however, is that cloud forensics necessitates access to a robust dataset that extends far beyond traditional log data sources.

While logs provide valuable insights, a forensics investigation demands a deeper understanding derived from multiple data sources, including disk, network, and memory, within the cloud infrastructure. Full disk analysis complements log analysis, offering crucial context for identifying the root cause and scope of an incident.

For instance, when investigating an incident involving a Kubernetes cluster running on an EC2 instance, access to bash history can provide insights into the commands executed by attackers on the affected instance, which would not be available through cloud logs alone.

Having all of the evidence in one place is also a capability that can significantly streamline investigations, unifying your evidence be it disk images, memory captures or cloud logs, into a single timeline allowing security teams to reconstruct an attacks origin, path and impact far more easily. Multi–cloud environments also require platforms that can support aggregating data from many providers and services into one place. Doing this enables more holistic investigations and reduces security blind spots.

There is also the importance of collecting data from ephemeral resources in modern cloud and containerized environments. Critical evidence can be lost in seconds as resources are constantly spinning up and down, so having the ability to capture this data before its gone can be a huge advantage to security teams, rather than having to figure out what happened after the affected service is long gone.

darktrace / cloud, cado, cloud logs, ost, and memory information. value of cloud combined analysis

2. Chain of custody

Chain of custody is extremely critical in the context of legal proceedings and is an essential component of forensics and incident response. However, chain of custody in the cloud can be extremely complex with the number of people who have access and the rise of multi-cloud environments.

In the cloud, maintaining a reliable chain of custody becomes even more complex than it already is, due to having to account for multiple access points, service providers and third parties. Having automated evidence tracking is a must. It means that all actions are logged, from collection to storage to access. Automation also minimizes the chance of human error, reducing the risk of mistakes or gaps in evidence handling, especially in high pressure fast moving investigations.

The ability to preserve unaltered copies of forensic evidence in a secure manner is required to ensure integrity throughout an investigation. It is not just a technical concern, its a legal one, ensuring that your evidence handling is documented and time stamped allows it to stand up to court or regulatory review.

Real cloud forensics platforms should autonomously handle chain of custody in the background, recording and safeguarding evidence without human intervention.

3. Automated collection and isolation

When malicious activity is detected, the speed at which security teams can determine root cause and scope is essential to reducing Mean Time to Response (MTTR).

Automated forensic data collection and system isolation ensures that evidence is collected and compromised resources are isolated at the first sign of malicious activity. This can often be before an attacker has had the change to move latterly or cover their tracks. This enables security teams to prevent potential damage and spread while a deeper-dive forensics investigation takes place. This method also ensures critical incident evidence residing in ephemeral environments is preserved in the event it is needed for an investigation. This evidence may only exist for minutes, leaving no time for a human analyst to capture it.

Cloud forensics and incident response platforms should offer the ability to natively integrate with incident detection and alerting systems and/or built-in product automation rules to trigger evidence capture and resource isolation.

4. Ease of use

Security teams shouldn’t require deep cloud or incident response knowledge to perform forensic investigations of cloud resources. They already have enough on their plates.

While traditional forensics tools and approaches have made investigation and response extremely tedious and complex, modern forensics platforms prioritize usability at their core, and leverage automation to drastically simplify the end-to-end incident response process, even when an incident spans multiple Cloud Service Providers (CSPs).

Useability is a core requirement for any modern forensics platform. Security teams should not need to have indepth knowledge of every system and resource in a given estate. Workflows, automation and guidance should make it possible for an analyst to investigate whatever resource they need to.

Unifying the workflow across multiple clouds can also save security teams a huge amount of time and resources. Investigations can often span multiple CSP’s. A good security platform should provide a single place to search, correlate and analyze evidence across all environments.

Offering features such as cross cloud support, data enrichment, a single timeline view, saved search, and faceted search can help advanced analysts achieve greater efficiency, and novice analysts are able to participate in more complex investigations.

5. Incident preparedness

Incident response shouldn't just be reactive. Modern security teams need to regularly test their ability to acquire new evidence, triage assets and respond to threats across both new and existing resources, ensuring readiness even in the rapidly changing environments of the cloud.  Having the ability to continuously assess your incident response and forensics workflows enables you to rapidly improve your processes and identify and mitigate any gaps identified that could prevent the organization from being able to effectively respond to potential threats.

Real forensics platforms deliver features that enable security teams to prepare extensively and understand their shortcomings before they are in the heat of an incident. For example, cloud forensics platforms can provide the ability to:

  • Run readiness checks and see readiness trends over time
  • Identify and mitigate issues that could prevent rapid investigation and response
  • Ensure the correct logging, management agents, and other cloud-native tools are appropriately configured and operational
  • Ensure that data gathered during an investigation can be decrypted
  • Verify that permissions are aligned with best practices and are capable of supporting incident response efforts

Cloud forensics with Darktrace

Darktrace delivers a proactive approach to cyber resilience in a single cybersecurity platform, including cloud coverage. Darktrace / CLOUD is a real time Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) solution built with advanced AI to make cloud security accessible to all security teams and SOCs. By using multiple machine learning techniques, Darktrace brings unprecedented visibility, threat detection, investigation, and incident response to hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Darktrace’s cloud offerings have been bolstered with the acquisition of Cado Security Ltd., which enables security teams to gain immediate access to forensic-level data in multi-cloud, container, serverless, SaaS, and on-premises environments.

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