ReliaQuest recently responded to a manufacturing sector breach involving phishing and data exfiltration. In this case, attackers achieved a “breakout time” of just 48 minutes —the critical window between initial access and lateral movement when the potential for damage skyrockets. A ReliaQuest employee fell victim to a phishing attack and the hackers gained access to a dashboard. Cybersecurity firm ReliaQuest has confirmed being targeted by hackers affiliated with the notorious ShinyHunters group, but claims the impact of the attack was limited. ReliaQuest revealed on August. Researchers at ReliaQuest have published a report on a phishing breach in the manufacturing sector that went from initial access to lateral movement in just 48 minutes. The four-minute breakout time comes from ReliaQuest’s own customer incident data, not a hypothetical scenario built to sell software, and it’s the kind of figure that should make any security leader uncomfortable with how their team currently finds gaps. (Reliaquest)48 Minutes: How Fast Phishing Attacks Exploit Weaknesses 🔹 Threat Actors Take a Mere 48 Minutes to Go From Initial Access to Lateral Movement — Cybersecurity company. ReliaQuest says it contained a social engineering attack that briefly gave a threat actor access to a single employee identity session. With breakout time down to just 48 minutes, threat actors are achieving lateral movement faster than ever. At this point, manual defenses just can’t catch up. ReliaQuest GreyMatter seamlessly integrates with any technology in your existing tool stack to identify and contain threats within just 5 minutes. Our research identified that, on average, attackers moved from initial access to lateral movement in just 48 minutes. It also takes attackers just over 4 hours to exfiltrate data and 6 hours to encrypt it. ⚡️Speed has never been more important in cybersecurity. ReliaQuest’s 2025 Threat Report reveals that attackers gain access and move laterally within 48 minutes on average, with data exfiltration possible in as little as 4 hours. In the attack at hand, the breakout time—meaning the time span from the moment of initial access to lateral movement inside the network—was just 48 minutes. “For defenders, breakout time is the.