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September 13, 2023

How Darktrace Stopped Akira Ransomware

Learn how Darktrace is uniquely placed to identify and contain the novel Akira ransomware strain, first observed in March 2023.
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
Manoel Kadja
Cyber Analyst
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13
Sep 2023

Introduction to Akira Ransomware

In the face of a seemingly never-ending production line of novel ransomware strains, security teams across the threat landscape are continuing to see a myriad of new variants and groups targeting their networks. Naturally, new strains and threat groups present unique challenges to organizations. The use of previously unseen tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) means that threat actors can often completely bypass traditional rule and signature-based security solutions, thus rendering an organization’s digital environment vulnerable to attack.

What is Akira Ransomware?

One such example of a novel ransomware family is Akira, which was first observed in the wild in March 2023. Much like many other strains, Akira is known to target corporate networks worldwide, encrypting sensitive files and demanding huge sums of money to retrieve the data and stop it from being posted online [1].

Key characteristics of Akira Ransomware

  • Targeted Attacks: Focuses on specific industries and organizations, often targeting those with valuable data.
  • Double Extortion Tactics: Employs double extortion by encrypting data and threatening to release it publicly if the ransom is not paid.
  • Advanced Encryption: Utilizes sophisticated encryption algorithms to ensure that data recovery is impossible without the decryption key.
  • Custom Ransom Notes: Delivers personalized ransom notes tailored to the victim, often containing detailed instructions and specific payment demands.
  • Stealth Techniques: Uses advanced evasion techniques to avoid detection by security tools and to remain undetected for extended periods.
  • Fast Encryption Process: Known for its rapid encryption process, minimizing the time window for detection and response by the victim.
  • Frequent Updates: Regularly updates its malware to bypass the latest security defenses and to improve its effectiveness.
  • Professional Communication: Maintains professional and often polite communication with victims to facilitate ransom payments and decryption.

Darktrace AI capabilities detect Akira Ransomware

In late May 2023, Darktrace observed multiple instances of Akira ransomware affecting networks across its customer base. Thanks to its anomaly-based approach to threat detection, Darktrace successfully identified the novel ransomware attacks and provided full visibility over the cyber kill chain, from the initial compromise to the eventual file encryptions and ransom notes. In cases where Darktrace was enabled in autonomous response mode, these attacks were mitigated the early stages of the attack, thus minimizing any disruption or damage to customer networks.

Initial access and privileged escalation

Methods used by Akira ransomware for privileged escalation

The Akira ransomware group typically uses spear-phishing campaigns containing malicious downloads or links as their primary initial access vector; however, they have also been known to use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) brute-force attacks to access target networks [2].

While Darktrace did observe the early access activities that are detailed below, it is very likely that the actual initial intrusion happened prior to this, through targeted phishing attacks that fell outside of Darktrace’s purview. The first indicators of compromise (IoCs) that Darktrace observed on customer networks affected by Darktrace were typically unusual RDP sessions, and the use of compromised administrative credentials.

Darktrace detection of initial access and priviledged escalation

On one Darktrace customer’s network (customer A), Darktrace identified a highly privileged credential being used for the first time on an internal server on May 21, 2023. Around a week later, this server was observed establishing RDP connections with multiple internal destination devices via port 3389. Further investigation carried out by the customer revealed that this credential had indeed been compromised. On May 30, Darktrace detected another device scanning internal devices and repeatedly failing to authenticate via Kerberos.

As the customer had integrated Darktrace with Microsoft Defender, their security team received additional cyber threat intelligence from Microsoft which, coupled with the anomaly alerts provided by Darktrace, helped to further contextualize these anomalous events. One specific detail gleaned from this integration was that the anomalous scanning activity and failed authentication attempts were carried out using the compromised administrative credentials mentioned earlier.

By integrating Microsoft Defender with Darktrace, customers can efficiently close security gaps across their digital infrastructure. While Darktrace understands customer environments and provides valuable network-level insights, by integrating with Microsoft Defender, customers can further enrich these insights with endpoint-specific information and activity.

In another customer’s network (customer B), Darktrace detected a device, later observed writing a ransom note, receiving an unusual RDP connection from another internal device. The RDP cookie used during this activity was an administrative RDP cookie that appeared to have been compromised. This device was also observed making multiple connections to the domain, api.playanext[.]com, and using the user agent , AnyDesk/7.1.11, indicating the use of the AnyDesk remote desktop service.

Although this external domain does not appear directly related to Akira ransomware, open-source intelligence (OSINT) found associations with multiple malicious files, and it appeared to be associated with the AnyDesk user agent, AnyDesk/6.0.1 [3]. The connections to this endpoint likely represented the malicious use of AnyDesk to remotely control the customer’s device, rather than Akira command-and-control (C2) infrastructure or payloads. Alternatively, it could be indicative of a spoofing attempt in which the threat actor is attempting to masquerade as legitimate remote desktop service to remain undetected by security tools.

Around the same time, Darktrace observed many devices on customer B’s network making anomalous internal RDP connections and authenticating via Kerberos, NTLM, or SMB using the same administrative credential. These devices were later confirmed to be affected by Akira Ransomware.

Figure 1 shows how Darktrace detected one of those internal devices failing to login via SMB multiple times with a certain credential (indication of a possible SMB/NTLM brute force), before successfully accessing other internal devices via SMB, NTLM and RDP using the likely compromised administrative credential mentioned earlier.

Figure 1: Model Breach Event Log indicating unusual SMB, NTLM and RDP activity with different credentials detected which led to the Darktrace model breaches, "Unusual Admin RDP Session” and “Successful Admin Brute-Force Activity”.

Darktrace models observed for initial access and privilege escalation:

  • Device / Anomalous RDP Followed By Multiple Model Breaches
  • Anomalous Connection / Unusual Admin RDP Session
  • New Admin Credentials on Server
  • Possible SMB/NTLM Brute Force Indicator
  • Unusual Activity / Successful Admin Brute-Force Activity

Internal Reconnaissance and Lateral Movement

The next step Darktrace observed during Akira Ransomware attacks across the customer was internal reconnaissance and lateral movement.

How Akira Ransomware conducts internal reconnaissance

In another customer’s environment (customer C), after authenticating via NTLM using a compromised credential, a domain controller was observed accessing a large amount of SMB shares it had never previously accessed. Darktrace understood that this SMB activity represented a deviation in the device’s expected behavior and recognized that it could be indicative of SMB enumeration. Darktrace observed the device making at least 196 connections to 34 unique internal IPs via port 445. SMB actions read, write, and delete were observed during those connections. This domain controller was also one of many devices on the customer’s network that was received incoming connections from an external endpoint over port 3389 using the RDP protocol, indicating that the devices were likely being remotely controlled from outside the network. While there were no direct OSINT links with this endpoint and Akira ransomware, the domain controller in question was later confirmed to be compromised and played a key role in this phase of the attack.

Moreover, this represents the second IoC that Darktrace observed that had no obvious connection to Akira, likely indicating that Akira actors are establishing entirely new infrastructure to carry out their attacks, or even utilizing newly compromised legitimate infrastructure. As Darktrace adopts an anomaly-based approach to threat detection, it can recognize suspicious activity indicative of an emerging ransomware attack based on its unusualness, rather than having to rely on previously observed IoCs and lists of ‘known-bads’.

Darktrace further observed a flurry of activity related to lateral movement around this time, primarily via SMB writes of suspicious files to other internal destinations. One particular device on customer C’s network was detected transferring multiple executable (.exe) and script files to other internal devices via SMB.

Darktrace recognized that these transfers represented a deviation from the device’s normal SMB activity and may have indicated threat actors were attempting to compromise additional devices via the transfer of malicious software.

Figure 2: Advanced Search results showing 20 files associated with suspicious SMB write activity, amongst them executable files and dynamic link libraries (DLLs).

Darktrace DETECT models observed for internal reconnaissance and lateral movement:

  • Device / RDP Scan
  • Anomalous Connection / SMB Enumeration
  • Anomalous Connection / Possible Share Enumeration Activity
  • Scanning of Multiple Devices (Cyber AI Analyst Incident)
  • Device / Possible SMB/NTLM Reconnaissance
  • Compliance / Incoming Remote Desktop
  • Compliance / Outgoing NTLM Request from DC
  • Unusual Activity / Internal Data Transfer
  • Security Integration / Lateral Movement and Integration Detection
  • Device / Anomalous SMB Followed By Multiple Model Breaches

Ransomware deployment

In the final phase of Akira ransomware attacks detected on Darktrace customer networks, Darktrace identified the file extension “.akira” being added after encryption to a variety of files on the affected network shares, as well as a ransom note titled “akira_readme.txt” being dropped on affected devices.

On customer A’s network, after nearly 9,000 login failures and 2,000 internal connection attempts indicative of scanning activity, one device was detected transferring suspicious files over SMB to other internal devices. The device was then observed connecting to another internal device via SMB and continuing suspicious file activity, such as appending files on network shares with the “.akira” extension, and performing suspicious writes to SMB shares on other internal devices.

Darktrace’s autonomous threat investigator, Cyber AI Analyst™, was able to analyze the multiple events related to this encryption activity and collate them into one AI Analyst incident, presenting a detailed and comprehensive summary of the entire incident within 10 minutes of Darktrace’s initial detection. Rather than simply viewing individual breaches as standalone activity, AI Analyst can identify the individual steps of an ongoing attack to provide complete visibility over emerging compromises and their kill chains. Not only does this bolster the network’s defenses, but the autonomous investigations carried out by AI Analyst also help to save the security team’s time and resources in triaging and monitoring ongoing incidents.

Figure 3: Darktrace Cyber AI Analyst incident correlated multiple model breaches together to show Akira ransomware encryption activity.

In addition to analyzing and compiling Darktrace model breaches, AI Analyst also leveraged the host-level insights provided by Microsoft Defender to enrich its investigation into the encryption event. By using the Security Integration model breaches, AI Analyst can retrieve timestamp and device details from a Defender alert and further investigate any unusual activity surrounding the alert to present a full picture of the suspicious activity.

In customer B’s environment, following the unusual RDP sessions and rare external connections using the AnyDesk user agent, an affected device was later observed writing around 2,000 files named "akira_readme.txt" to multiple internal SMB shares. This represented the malicious actor dropping ransom notes, containing the demands and extortion attempts of the actors.

Figure 4: Model Breach Event Log indicating the ransom note detected on May 12, 2023, which led to the Darktrace DETECT model breach, Anomalous Server Activity / Write to Network Accessible WebRoot.
Figure 5: Packet Capture (PCAP) demonstrating the Akira ransom note captured from the connection details seen in Figure 4.

As a result of this ongoing activity, an Enhanced Monitoring model breach, a high-fidelity detection model type that detects activities that are more likely to be indicative of compromise, was escalated to Darktrace’s Security Operations Center (SOC) who, in turn were able to further investigate and triage this ransomware activity. Customers who have subscribed to Darktrace’s Proactive Threat Notification (PTN) service would receive an alert from the SOC team, advising urgent follow up action.

Darktrace detection models observed during ransomware deployment:

  • Security Integration / Integration Ransomware Incident
  • Security Integration / High Severity Integration Detection
  • Security Integration / Integration Ransomware Detected
  • Device / Suspicious File Writes to Multiple Hidden SMB Shares
  • Compliance / SMB Drive Write
  • Compromise / Ransomware / Suspicious SMB Activity (Proactive Threat Notification Alerted by the Darktrace SOC)
  • Anomalous File / Internal / Additional Extension Appended to SMB File
  • Anomalous File / Internal / Unusual SMB Script Write
  • Compromise / Ransomware / Ransom or Offensive Words Written to SMB
  • Anomalous Server Activity /Write to Network Accessible WebRoot
  • Anomalous Server Activity /Write to Network Accessible WebRoot

Darktrace autonomous response neutralizes Akira Ransomware

When Darktrace is configured in autonomous response mode, it is able to follow up successful threat identifications with instant autonomous actions that stop malicious actors in their tracks and prevent them from achieving their end goals.

In the examples of Darktrace customers affected by Akira Ransomware outlined above, only customer A had autonomous response mode enabled during their ransomware attack. The autonomous response capability of Darktrace helped the customer to minimize disruption to the business through multiple targeted actions on devices affected by ransomware.

One action carried out by Darktrace's Autonomous Respose was to block all on-going traffic from affected devices. In doing so, Darktrace effectively shuts down communications between devices affected by Akira and the malicious infrastructure used by threat actors, preventing the spread of data on the client network or threat actor payloads.

Another crucial response action applied on this customer’s network was combat Akira was to “Enforce a Pattern of Life” on affected devices. This action is designed to prevent devices from performing any activity that would constitute a deviation from their expected behavior, while allowing them to continue their ‘usual’ business operations without causing any disruption.

While the initial intrusion of the attack on customer A’s network likely fell outside of the scope of Darktrace’s visibility, Darktrace was able to minimize the disruption caused by Akira, containing the ransomware and allowing the customer to further investigate and remediate.

Darktrace Autonomous Response model breaches:

  • Antigena / Network / External Threat / Antigena Ransomware Block
  • Antigena / Network / External Threat / Antigena Suspicious Activity Block
  • Antigena / Network / Significant Anomaly / Antigena Enhanced Monitoring from Server Block
  • Antigena / Network / External Threat / Antigena Suspicious Activity Block
  • Antigena / Network / External Threat / Antigena File then New Outbound Block
  • Antigena / Network / Insider Threat / Antigena Unusual Privileged User Activities Block
  • Antigena / Network / Significant Anomaly / Antigena Breaches Over Time Block
  • Antigena / Network / Significant Anomaly / Antigena Significant Anomaly from Client Block
  • Antigena / Network /Insider Threat /Antigena SMB Enumeration Block

Conclusion

The impact of cyber attacks

Novel ransomware strains like Akira Ransomware present a significant challenge to security teams across the globe due to the constant evolution of attack methods and tactics, making it huge a challenge for security teams to stay up to date with the most current threat intelligence.  

Therefore, it is paramount for organizations to adopt a technology designed around an intelligent decision maker able to identify unusual activity that could be indicative of a ransomware attack without depending solely on rules, signatures, or statistic lists of malicious IoCs.

Importance of AI-powered cybersecurity solutions

Darktrace identified Akira ransomware at every stage of the attack’s kill chain on multiple customer networks, even when threat actors were utilizing seemingly legitimate services (or spoofed versions of them) to carry out malicious activity. While this may have gone unnoticed by traditional security tools, Darktrace’s anomaly-based detection enabled it to recognize malicious activity for what it was. When enabled in autonomous response mode, Darktrace is able to follow up initial detections with machine-speed preventative actions to stop the spread of ransomware and minimize the damage caused to customer networks.  

There is no silver bullet to defend against novel cyber-attacks, however Darktrace’s anomaly-based approach to threat detection and autonomous response capabilities are uniquely placed to detect and respond to cyber disruption without latency.

Credit to: Manoel Kadja, Cyber Analyst, Nahisha Nobregas, SOC Analyst.

Appendices

IOC - Type - Description/Confidence

202.175.136[.]197 - External destination IP -Incoming RDP Connection

api.playanext[.]com - External hostname - Possible RDP Host

.akira - File Extension - Akira Ransomware Extension

akira_readme.txt - Text File - Akira Ransom Note

AnyDesk/7.1.11 - User Agent -AnyDesk User Agent

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

Tactic & Technique

DISCOVERY

T1083 - File and Directory Discovery

T1046 - Network Service Scanning

T1135 - Network Share Discovery

RECONNAISSANCE

T1595.002 - Vulnerability Scanning

CREDENTIAL ACCESS, COLLECTION

T1557.001 - LLMNR/NBT-NS Poisoning and SMB Relay

DEFENSE EVASION, LATERAL MOVEMENT

T1550.002 - Pass the Hash

DEFENSE EVASION, PERSISTENCE, PRIVILEGE ESCALATION, INITIAL ACCESS

T1078 - Valid Accounts

DEFENSE EVASION

T1006 - Direct Volume Access

LATERAL MOVEMENT

T1563.002 - RDP Hijacking

T1021.001 - Remote Desktop Protocol

T1080 - Taint Shared Content

T1021.002 - SMB/Windows Admin Shares

INITIAL ACCESS

T1190 - Exploit Public-Facing Application

T1199 - Trusted Relationship

PERSISTENCE, INITIAL ACCESS

T1133 - External Remote Services

PERSISTENCE

T1505.003 - Web Shell

IMPACT

T1486 - Data Encrypted for Impact

References

[1] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/meet-akira-a-new-ransomware-operation-targeting-the-enterprise/

[2] https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/cert-in-warns-against-akira-ransomware/#:~:text=Spread%20Methods%3A%20Akira%20ransomware%20is,Desktop%20connections%20to%20infiltrate%20systems

[3] https://hybrid-analysis.com/sample/0ee9baef94c80647eed30fa463447f000ec1f50a49eecfb71df277a2ca1fe4db?environmentId=100

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
Manoel Kadja
Cyber Analyst

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September 25, 2025

Announcing Unified Real-Time CDR and Automated Investigations to Transform Cloud Security Operations

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Fragmented Tools are Failing SOC Teams in the Cloud Era

The cloud has transformed how businesses operate, reshaping everything from infrastructure to application delivery. But cloud security has not kept pace. Most tools still rely on traditional models of logging, policy enforcement, and posture management; approaches that provide surface-level visibility but lack the depth to detect or investigate active attacks.

Meanwhile, attackers are exploiting vulnerabilities, delivering cloud-native exploits, and moving laterally in ways that posture management alone cannot catch fast enough. Critical evidence is often missed, and alerts lack the forensic depth SOC analysts need to separate noise from true risk. As a result, organizations remain exposed: research shows that nearly nine in ten organizations have suffered a critical cloud breach despite investing in existing security tools [1].

SOC teams are left buried in alerts without actionable context, while ephemeral workloads like containers and serverless functions vanish before evidence can be preserved. Point tools for logging or forensics only add complexity, with 82% of organizations using multiple platforms to investigate cloud incidents [2].

The result is a broken security model: posture tools surface risks but don’t connect them to active attacker behaviors, while investigation tools are too slow and fragmented to provide timely clarity. Security teams are left reactive, juggling multiple point solutions and still missing critical signals. What’s needed is a unified approach that combines real-time detection and response for active threats with automated investigation and cloud posture management in a single workflow.

Just as security teams once had to evolve beyond basic firewalls and antivirus into network and endpoint detection, response, and forensics, cloud security now requires its own next era: one that unifies detection, response, and investigation at the speed and scale of the cloud.

A Powerful Combination: Real-Time CDR + Automated Cloud Forensics

Darktrace / CLOUD now uniquely unites detection, investigation, and response into one workflow, powered by Self-Learning AI. This means every alert, from any tool in your stack, can instantly become actionable evidence and a complete investigation in minutes.

With this release, Darktrace / CLOUD delivers a more holistic approach to cloud defense, uniting real-time detection, response, and investigation with proactive risk reduction. The result is a single solution that helps security teams stay ahead of attackers while reducing complexity and blind spots.

  • Automated Cloud Forensic Investigations: Instantly capture and analyze volatile evidence from cloud assets, reducing investigation times from days to minutes and eliminating blind spots
  • Enhanced Cloud-Native Threat Detection: Detect advanced attacker behaviors such as lateral movement, privilege escalation, and command-and-control in real time
  • Enhanced Live Cloud Topology Mapping: Gain continuous insight into cloud environments, including ephemeral workloads, with live topology views that simplify investigations and expose anomalous activity
  • Agentless Scanning for Proactive Risk Reduction: Continuously monitor for misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and risky exposures to reduce attack surface and stop threats before they escalate.

Automated Cloud Forensic Investigations

Darktrace / CLOUD now includes capabilities introduced with Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation, triggering automated forensic acquisition the moment a threat is detected. This ensures ephemeral evidence, from disks and memory to containers and serverless workloads can be preserved instantly and analyzed in minutes, not days. The integration unites detection, response, and forensic investigation in a way that eliminates blind spots and reduces manual effort.

Figure 1: Easily view Forensic Investigation of a cloud resource within the Darktrace / CLOUD architecture map

Enhanced Cloud-Native Threat Detection

Darktrace / CLOUD strengthens its real-time behavioral detection to expose early attacker behaviors that logs alone cannot reveal. Enhanced cloud-native detection capabilities include:

• Reconnaissance & Discovery – Detects enumeration and probing activity post-compromise.

• Privilege Escalation via Role Assumption – Identifies suspicious attempts to gain elevated access.

• Malicious Compute Resource Usage – Flags threats such as crypto mining or spam operations.

These enhancements ensure active attacks are detected earlier, before adversaries can escalate or move laterally through cloud environments.

Figure 2: Cyber AI Analyst summary of anomalous behavior for privilege escalation and establishing persistence.

Enhanced Live Cloud Topology Mapping

New enhancements to live topology provide real-time mapping of cloud environments, attacker movement, and anomalous behavior. This dynamic visibility helps SOC teams quickly understand complex environments, trace attack paths, and prioritize response. By integrating with Darktrace / Proactive Exposure Management (PEM), these insights extend beyond the cloud, offering a unified view of risks across networks, endpoints, SaaS, and identity — giving teams the context needed to act with confidence.

Figure 3: Enhanced live topology maps unify visibility across architectures, identities, network connections and more.

Agentless Scanning for Proactive Risk Reduction

Darktrace / CLOUD now introduces agentless scanning to uncover malware and vulnerabilities in cloud assets without impacting performance. This lightweight, non-disruptive approach provides deep visibility into cloud workloads and surfaces risks before attackers can exploit them. By continuously monitoring for misconfigurations and exposures, the solution strengthens posture management and reduces attack surface across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Figure 4: Agentless scanning of cloud assets reveals vulnerabilities, which are prioritized by severity.

Together, these capabilities move cloud security operations from reactive to proactive, empowering security teams to detect novel threats in real time, reduce exposures before they are exploited, and accelerate investigations with forensic depth. The result is faster triage, shorter MTTR, and reduced business risk — all delivered in a single, AI-native solution built for hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Accelerating the Evolution of Cloud Security

Cloud security has long been fragmented, forcing teams to stitch together posture tools, log-based monitoring, and external forensics to get even partial coverage. With this release, Darktrace / CLOUD delivers a holistic, unified approach that covers every stage of the cloud lifecycle, from proactive posture management and risk identification to real-time detection, to automated investigation and response.

By bringing these capabilities together in a single AI-native solution, Darktrace is advancing cloud security beyond incremental change and setting a new standard for how organizations protect their hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

With Darktrace / CLOUD, security teams finally gain end-to-end visibility, response, and investigation at the speed of the cloud, transforming cloud defense from fragmented and reactive to unified and proactive.

[related-resource]

Sources: [1], [2] Darktrace Report: Organizations Require a New Approach to Handle Investigations in the Cloud

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About the author
Adam Stevens
Senior Director of Product, Cloud | Darktrace

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September 25, 2025

Introducing the Industry’s First Truly Automated Cloud Forensics Solution

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Why Cloud Investigations Fail Today

Cloud investigations have become one of the hardest problems in modern cybersecurity. Traditional DFIR tools were built for static, on-prem environments, rather than dynamic and highly scalable cloud environments, containing ephemeral workloads that disappear in minutes. SOC analysts are flooded with cloud security alerts with one-third lacking actionable data to confirm or dismiss a threat[1], while DFIR teams waste 3-5 days requesting access and performing manual collection, or relying on external responders.

These delays leave organizations vulnerable. Research shows that nearly 90% of organizations suffer some level of damage before they can fully investigate and contain a cloud incident [2]. The result is a broken model: alerts are closed without a complete understanding of the threat due to a lack of visibility and control, investigations drag on, and attackers retain the upper hand.

For SOC teams, the challenge is scale and clarity. Analysts are inundated with alerts but lack the forensic depth to quickly distinguish real threats from noise. Manual triage wastes valuable time, creates alert fatigue, and often forces teams to escalate or dismiss incidents without confidence — leaving adversaries with room to maneuver.

For DFIR teams, the challenge is depth and speed. Traditional forensics tools were built for static, on-premises environments and cannot keep pace with ephemeral workloads that vanish in minutes. Investigators are left chasing snapshots, requesting access from cloud teams, or depending on external responders, leading to blind spots and delayed response.

That’s why we built Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation, the first automated forensic solution designed specifically for the speed, scale, and complexities of the cloud. It addresses both sets of challenges by combining automated forensic evidence capture, attacker timeline reconstruction, and cross-cloud scale. The solution empowers SOC analysts with instant clarity and DFIR teams with forensic depth, all in minutes, not days. By leveraging the very nature of the cloud, Darktrace makes these advanced capabilities accessible to security teams of all sizes, regardless of expertise or resources.

Introducing Automated Forensics at the Speed and Scale of Cloud

Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation transforms cloud investigations by capturing, processing, and analyzing forensic evidence of cloud workloads, instantly, even from time-restricted ephemeral resources. Triggered by a detection from any cloud security tool, the entire process is automated, providing accurate root cause analysis and deep insights into attacker behavior in minutes rather than days or weeks. SOC and DFIR teams no longer have to rely on manual processes, snapshots, or external responders, they can now leverage the scale and elasticity of the cloud to accelerate triage and investigations.

Seamless Integration with Existing Detection Tools

Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation does not require customers to replace their detection stack. Instead, it integrates with cloud-native providers, XDR platforms, and SIEM/SOAR tools, automatically initiating forensic capture whenever an alert is raised. This means teams can continue leveraging their existing investments while gaining the forensic depth required to validate alerts, confirm root cause, and accelerate response.

Most importantly, the solution is natively integrated with Darktrace / CLOUD, turning real-time detections of novel attacker behaviors into full forensic investigations instantly. When Darktrace / CLOUD identifies suspicious activity such as lateral movement, privilege escalation, or abnormal usage of compute resources, Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation automatically preserves the underlying forensic evidence before it disappears. This seamless workflow unites detection, response, and investigation in a way that eliminates gaps, accelerates triage, and gives teams confidence that every critical cloud alert can be investigated to completion.

Figure 1: Integration with Darktrace / CLOUD – this example is showing the ability to pivot into the forensic investigation associated with a compromised cloud asset

Automated Evidence Collection Across Hybrid and Multi-Cloud

The solution provides automated forensic acquisition across AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP, and on-prem environments. It supports both full volume capture, creating a bit-by-bit copy of an entire storage device for the most comprehensive preservation of evidence, and triage collection, which prioritizes speed by gathering only the most essential forensic artifacts such as process data, logs, network connections, and open file contents. This flexibility allows teams to strike the right balance between speed and depth depending on the investigation at hand.

Figure 2: Ability to acquire forensic data from Cloud, SaaS and on-prem environments

Automated Investigations, Root Cause Analysis and Attacker Timelines

Once evidence is collected, Darktrace applies automation to reconstruct attacker activity into a unified timeline. This includes correlating commands, files, lateral movement, and network activity into a single investigative view enriched with custom threat intelligence such as IOCs. Detailed investigation reporting including an investigation summary, an overview of the attacker timeline, and key events. Analysts can pivot into detailed views such as the filesystem view, traversing directories or inspecting file content, or filter and search using faceted options to quickly narrow the scope of an investigation.

Figure 3: Automated Investigation view surfacing the most significant attacker activity, which is contextualized with Alarm information

Forensics for Containers and Ephemeral Assets

Investigating containers and serverless workloads has historically been one of the hardest challenges for DFIR teams, as these assets often disappear before evidence can be preserved. Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation captures forensic evidence across managed Kubernetes cloud services, even from distroless or no-shell containers, AWS ECS and other environments, ensuring that ephemeral activity is no longer a blind spot. For hybrid organizations, this extends to on-premises Kubernetes and OpenShift deployments, bringing consistency across environments.

Figure 4: Container investigations – this example is showing the ability to capture containers from managed Kubernetes cloud services

SaaS Log Collection for Modern Investigations

Beyond infrastructure-level data, the solution collects logs from SaaS providers such as Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Google Workspace. This enables investigations into common attack types like business email compromise (BEC), account takeover (ATO), and insider threats — giving teams visibility into both infrastructure-level and SaaS-driven compromise from a single platform.

Figure 5: Ability to import logs from SaaS providers including Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Google Workspace

Proactive Vulnerability and Malware Discovery

Finally, the solution surfaces risk proactively with vulnerability and malware discovery for Linux-based cloud resources. Vulnerabilities are presented in a searchable table and correlated with the attacker timeline, enabling teams to quickly understand not just which packages are exposed, but whether they have been targeted or exploited in the context of an incident.

Figure 6: Vulnerability data with pivot points into the attacker timeline

Cloud-Native Scale and Performance

Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation uses a cloud-native parallel processing architecture that spins up compute resources on demand, ensuring that investigations run at scale without bottlenecks. Detailed reporting and summaries are automatically generated, giving teams a clear record of the investigation process and supporting compliance, litigation readiness, and executive reporting needs.

Scalable and Flexible Deployment Options

Every organization has different requirements for speed, control, and integration. Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation is designed to meet those needs with two flexible deployment models.

  • Self-Hosted Virtual Appliance delivers deep integration and control across hybrid environments, preserving forensic data for compliance and litigation while scaling to the largest enterprise investigations.
  • SaaS-Delivered Deployment provides fast time-to-value out of the box, enabling automated forensic response without requiring deep cloud expertise or heavy setup.

Both models are built to scale across regions and accounts, ensuring organizations of any size can achieve rapid value and adapt the solution to their unique operational and compliance needs. This flexibility makes advanced cloud forensics accessible to every security team — whether they are optimizing for speed, integration depth, or regulatory alignment

Delivering Advanced Cloud Forensics for Every Team

Until now, forensic investigations were slow, manual, and reserved for only the largest organizations with specialized DFIR expertise. Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation changes that by leveraging the scale and elasticity of the cloud itself to automate the entire investigation process. From capturing full disk and memory at detection to reconstructing attacker timelines in minutes, the solution turns fragmented workflows into streamlined investigations available to every team.

Whether deployed as a SaaS-delivered service for fast time-to-value or as a self-hosted appliance for deep integration, Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation provides the features that matter most: automated evidence capture, cross-cloud investigations, forensic depth for ephemeral assets, and root cause clarity without manual effort.

With Darktrace / Forensic Acquisition & Investigation, what once took days now takes minutes. Now, forensic investigations in the cloud are faster, more scalable, and finally accessible to every security team, no matter their size or expertise.

[related-resource]

Sources: [1], [2] Darktrace Report: Organizations Require a New Approach to Handle Investigations in the Cloud

Additional Resources

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About the author
Paul Bottomley
Director of Product Management | Darktrace
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