Adversary Universe Podcast

How CrowdStrike Tracked INDRIK SPIDER from Origin to Takedown

On Oct. 1, 2024, an international law enforcement coalition announced the disruption of a senior member of INDRIK SPIDER, who was also an affiliate of the BITWISE SPIDER ransomware as a service operation. CrowdStrike often works with law enforcement to identify, track and stop cyber threats, and we played a key role in this operation.
In this episode, Adam and Cristian are joined by a member of CrowdStrike’s intelligence collection team to dive into the takedown, the years of cybercrime evolution that led to it and how CrowdStrike collects the intel that informs organizations and aids law enforcement activity. Their conversation takes us back to the early days of INDRIK SPIDER and traces the emergence and transformation of enterprise malware as it relates to this prolific threat actor. The story underscores how adversaries operate like businesses — and why they’re so hard to bring down.
Tune in to learn the background and significance of INDRIK SPIDER and its takedown, its connections to Russian intelligence, the techniques used to investigate and attribute adversaries, what this means for the future of law enforcement against cybercrime and where cheese-covered sushi fits into the picture.

Small But Mighty: The Kernel’s Essential Role in Cybersecurity Defense

The kernel is the brain of the operating system. It controls everything that happens on a computer and has full access to the hardware and all system resources. Though it has a small code base, the kernel plays a critical role in how systems and applications operate, interact and stay secure.
Due to the current architecture and design of Windows systems, cybersecurity products running in the platform — particularly those involved in endpoint protection — require kernel access to provide the highest levels of visibility, enforcement and tamper-resistance while meeting the strict performance requirements that large enterprise clients demand. Kernel access translates to stronger protection, better performance and adaptability to emerging threats.
In this episode, Adam and Cristian are joined by cybersecurity expert Alex Ionescu to unpack what the kernel is and its critical role in cybersecurity defense. They explain threats to kernel security, why kernel access is critical for cybersecurity products and the testing that security products must undergo to gain kernel access. Looking ahead, they also discuss what we can expect for the future of collaboration among Microsoft, security researchers and larger security organizations.

Coming Soon to Las Vegas: Adversary Universe Previews #FalCon2024

Next week marks the start of Fal.Con 2024. CrowdStrike’s annual conference brings together cybersecurity leaders and practitioners, as well as our customers and partners, in Las Vegas for four days of keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops and demos.
Adam and Cristian will both be speaking at this year’s show. In this episode, they share the talks they’re most excited about and how they tie into the broader threat landscape. Some sessions will dive into insights from the CrowdStrike Counter Adversary Operations team; some will explore how adversaries are using large language models (LLMs) and how to defend against adversarial use of AI technology. One will discuss generative AI and data security, in particular how genAI raises concerns around privacy, data fencing, and IP, as well as how data can be misused when training new AI models.
A key highlight of Fal.Con is the Adversary Underground, during which Adam and Cristian will bring guests onstage to showcase a machine learning-based research project they’ve been working on.
Register for the Fal.Con Digital Experience to stream the keynotes live during the show and view select sessions on-demand after the event.

Intern Spotlight: Starting A Cyber Career with CrowdStrike

For students aspiring to work in cybersecurity, sitting in a classroom isn’t enough to gain the skills and experience they need to succeed. Industry internships are invaluable opportunities to learn how security pros operate in the real world and understand the responsibilities each role requires.
CrowdStrike’s University Program welcomes interns across virtually every field to gain this real-world experience. This summer, David Feldman and Chandler McClellan interned for the CrowdStrike threat intelligence and Falcon Adversary OverWatch teams, respectively. Like many cybersecurity pros, both David and Chandler found their way into the industry after first exploring different fields. In this episode, they join Adam to share the details of how they got into cybersecurity, how they discovered CrowdStrike’s internship program and the projects they’ve been tackling as part of the CrowdStrike team.
“You just get to dive in,” says Chandler in this episode. “You feel like you’re doing meaningful work, and you are ... What we’re doing here matters.”
Tune in to learn how CrowdStrike’s interns are aiding in the fight against adversaries, what they consider the coolest parts of their summer roles and more in this episode of the Adversary Universe podcast.

Hunting the Rogue Insiders Operating for FAMOUS CHOLLIMA

FAMOUS CHOLLIMA, a new adversary CrowdStrike is tracking, has recently made headlines for its insider threat activity. In April 2024, CrowdStrike Services responded to the first of several incidents in which FAMOUS CHOLLIMA threat actors targeted 30+ US-based companies. The insiders claimed to be US residents and were hired for remote IT positions, which granted them access they exploited to attempt data exfiltration, install malware and conduct other malicious activity. CrowdStrike has now informed more than 100 companies they have hired these threat actors as employees.
In this episode, Adam and Cristian dig into the details of who FAMOUS CHOLLIMA is, how this attack was uncovered and why malicious insider threats are on the rise. They also examine the key findings of the CrowdStrike 2024 Threat Hunting Report, including the growth of cross-domain activity, adversary adoption of remote monitoring and management tools, and the concerning pattern of identity-focused attacks.
Download the CrowdStrike 2024 Threat Hunting Report today: https://www.crowdstrike.com/resources/reports/threat-hunting-report/

Talking OT Security with Fernando Madureira, Global CISO of Cosan

Where in the world are Adam and Cristian? In this episode, they’re coming to you live from São Paulo, Brazil, where they sat down with a special guest: Fernando Madureira. Fernando is the Global CISO of Cosan, a Brazilian conglomerate of several businesses spanning energy, transportation and logistics, and other sectors that operates around the world.
Given Cosan’s size and the nature of its business, Fernando has a broad range of threats at top of mind. Operational technology (OT) security is a key concern because adversaries seek access to OT devices and traffic, and it requires a different mindset and technology than a modern IT environment. Social engineering is another, as adversaries attempt to disguise themselves as employees to manipulate customers and partners.
Tune in to hear a conversation that explores OT security, modern phishing scams and how the Global CISO of a major company is taking steps to protect it.

How Adversaries Respond to Law Enforcement Takedowns

What happens when there is a takedown of a major cybercriminal group or law enforcement activity has a major impact on its leadership?
In this episode, Adam and Cristian unpack what happens in the aftermath of a takedown, including how some groups splinter, reemerge and even rebrand.

When the Adversary Knows They’re Caught

How do adversaries react when they know they’re being tracked? How do they respond to organizations that are on to them — and how do they know what the defenders know?
In this episode, Adam and Cristian explore how adversary behavior shifts as their activity is discovered and tracked. Today’s adversaries carefully research their victims. They read corporate blog posts and craft their techniques based on the information defenders share. As this intelligence becomes more detailed, organizations like CrowdStrike are forced to consider an important question: How much information can they share when they know adversaries are looking for it? Helping potential victims often comes at the cost of adversaries knowing we can see them and shifting their behavior accordingly.
How does their behavior change? As always, it depends on the group. Tune in for this fascinating conversation and real-world examples of adversaries responding to defenders’ actions.

Unpacking China-India Cyber Tensions

What happens when two cyber superpowers — and the most populous countries in the world — target one another? Tensions between China and India have been rising in recent years, and it’s time we take a deep dive into the many factors at play.
In this episode, Adam and Cristian examine the dynamics between the two nations, the drivers of their evolving cyber activity and the key adversaries involved in this growing conflict. “The key thing to understand here is adversaries are not only focused on us … in the U.S. or in Europe … and they’re not only focused on a particular business vertical,” says Adam. “They target each other all the time.”
When did we start to see this adversary-vs.-adversary conflict? What do the attacks between China and India look like? And how have we seen other nations target one another around the world? Tune in for these answers and to learn what organizations operating in these countries need to know to stay secure.

Understanding Social Engineering with Shelly Giesbrecht, Director, Professional Services

Social engineering is not a new threat — adversaries have long used psychological manipulation to gain access, money, information and more. But as we learn in this episode from Shelly Giesbrecht, Director of Professional Services at CrowdStrike, it remains a top cybersecurity challenge for all organizations.
Today’s social engineers are more convincing than ever. Gone are the days of clunky phishing emails rife with spelling errors. Modern social engineering attacks arrive as convincing and well-crafted text messages, emails and voice calls. They prey on human emotion and instinct, creating situations where technology can’t always help.
“It really comes down to that human factor,” says Shelly. “We talk a lot about technology, and obviously CrowdStrike is a technology company, but we are fallible still at the human level — and that’s where social engineering is targeted.”
In a conversation that starts with impostor syndrome and quickly pivots to the impostors who are emailing employees and calling help desks, Adam, Cristian and Shelly explore the modern social engineering landscape. Shelly describes what her team is seeing on the front lines of incident response, how social engineering campaigns are evolving with the rise of AI, and guidance for organizations worried about this prolific technique.