Why a Global Bank Turned to NDR After a Costly Cyber Breach

In today’s rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape, even the most fortified institutions are not immune to breaches. One global bank learned this lesson the hard way. After a sophisticated cyberattack led to significant financial losses and reputational damage, the bank made a decisive shift in its cybersecurity strategy — placing Network Detection and Response (NDR) at the center of its defense posture.

Here’s why.

The Breach That Changed Everything

The breach began quietly — with attackers exploiting a misconfigured third-party application. Over several weeks, the threat actors moved laterally across the network, exfiltrating sensitive customer data and financial records undetected. By the time traditional perimeter defenses raised the alarm, the damage had already been done.

The cost? Tens of millions in remediation expenses, legal penalties, and — perhaps most damaging — a loss of trust from clients and investors.

Rethinking the Security Stack

Like many financial institutions, the bank had invested heavily in traditional security controls: firewalls, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and SIEM platforms. But the breach revealed a critical blind spot — the inability to see and understand what was happening across its internal network in real time.

This is where NDR entered the picture.

Why NDR?

Network Detection and Response (NDR) solutions offer a powerful capability: continuous, real-time visibility into network traffic — both north-south and east-west. They apply behavioral analytics, machine learning, and threat intelligence to detect anomalies, lateral movement, data exfiltration, and command-and-control activity, even when other systems miss them.

For the bank, the decision to adopt NDR was based on four key factors:

1. Deep Visibility into Network Traffic

NDR provides context-rich insights into network behavior across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments. This was crucial for the bank, whose infrastructure spanned multiple geographies and environments.

2. Advanced Threat Detection

The attackers had used encrypted traffic and living-off-the-land techniques to evade detection. NDR’s ability to inspect encrypted traffic and detect subtle behavioral anomalies became a game-changer.

3. Faster Incident Response

Time is everything during a breach. NDR platforms like Fidelis NDR provide automated detection, enriched metadata, and rapid investigation capabilities — enabling security teams to cut dwell time and respond within minutes, not days.

4. Integration with Existing Tools

The bank didn’t want to rip and replace its existing stack. NDR offered seamless integration with its SIEM, SOAR, and EDR tools — enhancing overall threat detection and response without disrupting operations.

The Results

Within months of deploying NDR, the bank began seeing immediate value:

• A 45% reduction in mean time to detect (MTTD)

• Early detection of insider threats and policy violations

• Better prioritization of alerts through contextualized threat intelligence

• Stronger compliance posture and audit readiness

Most importantly, the security team now had the visibility and confidence to proactively defend against future threats.

Final Thoughts

Cybersecurity is no longer about building higher walls — it’s about gaining deeper insights and faster detection. For this global bank, the move to NDR wasn’t just a technology upgrade — it was a strategic pivot that transformed their ability to detect, investigate, and respond to advanced threats.

As cyber adversaries grow more stealthy and sophisticated, organizations across every industry would do well to take a page from this bank’s playbook.