Before a single file is encrypted, ransomware runs a full staged operation on the endpoint: it achieves persistence via registry modifications, extracts credentials from memory using tools like Mimikatz, maps the network, moves laterally across systems using RDP or PsExec, stages and exfiltrates data, disables security tools, and deletes shadow copies. Each phase leaves distinct forensic artifacts that investigators can recover and sequence. That’s why endpoint forensics often tells the full story of an attack even after the affected systems have been wiped.
