The 5-Day Breakout: How Long Does an Attacker Have Inside Your Network?

This analysis describes a shifting intrusion landscape where median dwell time has fallen to roughly five days while eCrime breakout time has compressed to an average of 29 minutes (with a fastest-observed 27 seconds), driven by living-off-the-land techniques, AI-assisted post‑exploitation automation, and widespread credential abuse; it explains the resulting detection-to-containment paradox and recommends earlier external detection (IAB and credential monitoring), behavioral detections for post‑entry activity, deception assets, and pre-authorized automated containment to close the window attackers exploit.