Reported by 2 outlets

Timeline

1. original reporting

   CISA Red Team Compromises Active Directory and Critical Business Systems

   cyberpress.org · 48d ago · August 26th, 2026

   CISA’s latest red team advisory warns critical infrastructure operators: large security budgets and sophisticated tools cannot compensate for a security operations center that fails to recognize, escalate, and contain malicious activity. The report, “A Tale of Two SOCs,” compares parallel assessments of a Government Services and Facilities Sector organization and a Water and Wastewater Systems Sector entity. CISA operators used nearly identical tradecraft but observed radically different outcomes. In both engagements, the red team began with phishing to establish an initial foothold. The operators then abused common Active Directory weaknesses, including the default Machine Account Quota setting and misconfigured Active Directory Certificate Services templates. These conditions enabled privilege escalation, credential access, and lateral movement across enterprise environments, demonstrating how long-standing identity misconfigurations can turn a single compromised endpoint into a domain-wide incident. CISA Red Team Compromises Active Directory At Organization A, the attack chain progressed without meaningful resistance. CISA obtained elevated domain privileges, reached sensitive business systems, and accessed cloud resources while remaining undetected. The team eventually read the SOC personnel’s email and deployed keyloggers on defenders’ own workstations, yet no effective response was able to interrupt the operation. The assessment illustrates how adversaries can maintain

2. update from gbhackers.com

   CISA Red Team Achieves Full Domain Compromise Across Critical Infrastructure Networks

   gbhackers.com · 49d ago · August 26th, 2026

   The August 25 advisory contrasts two critical-infrastructure organizations: one missed the intrusion entirely, while the other contained initial access quickly but still exposed major identity and cloud security weaknesses. […] The post CISA Red Team Achieves Full Domain Compromise Across Critical Infrastructure Networks appeared first on GBHackers Security | #1 Globally Trusted Cyber Security News Platform .