A SOC analyst reviews output from a predictive AI engine that has been modeling traffic patterns across the enterprise. Over the past six hours the model flags the following ordered pattern for a single internal host: (1) short, repeated HTTPS beacons to a newly registered domain, (2) a spike in internal SMB reads across multiple file shares, (3) creation of several large compressed archives on the host, and (4) a sustained outbound TLS session to a cloud storage provider that historically receives no traffic from this host. Based on interpreting this predicted sequence, which stage of the attack is the AI most likely indicating is currently underway in step 4?