> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.prismacloud.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.prismacloud.io/content-collections/runtime-security/runtime-defense/incident-types/lateral-movement.md).
# Lateral Movement
Lateral movement incidents indicate that an attacker is using tools and techniques that enable movement between resources on a network.
## Investigation
The following incident shows that netcat was used to establish a listener on port 9000.
This behavior is a probable precursor to creating a reverse shell, allowing network-based remote control of another resource.
Your investigation should focus on:
* Determining how the process in the alert, such as *nc.openbsd*, was executed. Review additional entries in Incident Explorer and other audits from the source, looking for unusual process execution, and explicit execution of commands.
* Reviewing container runtime audits to determine if the target successfully connected.
* If the target did successfully connect, determine what the attacker was able to do and if they were able to move further through the network.
## Mitigation
After determining the cause of the process execution, resolve the problem, whether it be an exposed vulnerability, a configuration issue, or something else.
For additional protection, enable the *prevent* or *block* actions in the applicable runtime rules to take action when anomalous processes, such as *netcat*, are executed.
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