Illumio report highlights challenges in addressing lateral movement in cybersecurity incidents

Illumio Inc. released the 2025 Global Cloud Detection and Response Report, based on a survey of 1,150 cybersecurity leaders conducted in August 2025. The report found that nearly 90% of organizations experienced a cybersecurity incident involving lateral movement in the past year, indicating critical gaps in visibility, detection, and response.

Detections of lateral movement proved elusive, and 92% of organizations reported security incidents linked to undetected threats. These incidents resulted in an average of over 7 hours of downtime. Fragmented visibility, particularly in hybrid environments, and alert fatigue were identified as primary barriers to effective threat detection.

Key findings included that 83% of organizations deployed multiple Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) solutions, yet 92% faced challenges with these tools, particularly concerning alert management and contextual visibility. A significant portion of network traffic, approximately 40%, lacked context necessary for investigation, exacerbating the issue of visibility.

As organizations look toward the future, leaders emphasize integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to enhance detection capabilities. Nearly 80% of respondents acknowledged that these technologies would help identify lateral movement more swiftly and mitigate alert fatigue. Top priorities for 2026 include augmenting AI capabilities and improving cloud detection processes.

Andrew Rubin, CEO and Founder of Illumio, stated, “In today’s dynamic threat environment, real-time visibility isn’t a feature; it’s a requirement. AI-powered observability must do more than detect; it must find threats quickly and stop them from spreading immediately.”