Case Study: Defense And Technology Manufacturing Company achieves rapid containment of a nation-state APT and limits data loss with Palo Alto Networks Unit 42

Defense contractor contains APT with Unit 42 Incident Response expertise

A U.S. defense and technology manufacturer was notified that its systems had been breached by a sophisticated nation-state APT (linked to the TiltedTemple campaign) that exploited a cloud vulnerability, installed web shells, tunneled into the internal network, and accessed dozens of systems. The organization urgently needed fast, accurate visibility into what was affected, how much data had been exfiltrated, and immediate containment and forensic evidence for executives and legal counsel.

Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 mobilized Incident Response, Managed Threat Hunting, and Cortex XDR to collect live and forensic data, identify the threat actor, terminate malicious sessions, remove web shells, and rebuild compromised systems. In about a week and a half they evicted the attacker, limited further data loss, delivered a comprehensive incident report, and implemented recommendations (including MFA and improved hygiene) plus Cortex XDR to strengthen the client’s security posture.