Adversary Universe Podcast

A Human at the Keyboard: CrowdStrike Reports 60% Jump in Interactive Intrusions

The days of automated cyberattacks are dwindling: last year CrowdStrike saw a 60% jump in interactive intrusions, a type of attack in which a human is on the other side, working to break in and navigating their target environment as soon as they gain access. Most (75% of) attacks in 2023 didn’t involve malware at all — in nearly all cases, the adversary relied on identity-related techniques or exploited an unmanaged device.
 
The threat landscape is constantly evolving as adversaries explore new tactics. And as the CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report shows, a lot can change in a year. We’re seeing more adversaries, operating at greater speed and conducting more attacks than ever.
 
In this episode, Adam and Cristian reflect on the early days of the Global Threat Report and examine the key findings of this year’s report. Highlights include:
62 minutes: The average time an adversary needs to move from an initial access point to another host in the target environment
232: The number of adversaries CrowdStrike tracks
75%: The year-over-year increase in attacks targeting cloud environments
76% increase in postings on data leak sites
Download your copy of the CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report today at crowdstrike.com/global-threat-report

The Dark Personality Traits Fueling Cybercrime

CrowdStrike has long said, “You don’t have a malware problem — you have an adversary problem.” Much like we analyze the malware and tools used in cyberattacks, we must also learn about the people who orchestrate them.Adam and Cristian are joined by Cameron Malin, a behavioral profiler who specializes in understanding adversaries and the “why” behind their activity. Cameron built the FBI’s Cyber Behavioral Analysis Unit, which works to understand the motivations for cybercrime across different types of offenses and has focused for years on exploring why adversaries do what they do. In this episode, he discusses how the discipline of cyber behavioral profiling emerged, how experts approach interviewing and analyzing adversaries, and the “dark triad” and “dark tetrad” of personality traits commonly observed in cyberattacks.

Demystifying North Korea: Why the "Hermit Kingdom" Is a Cyber Threat to Watch

Though the inner workings of North Korea remain a mystery to much of the world, its global cyber activity has been tracked and analyzed for years. CrowdStrike’s Counter Adversary Operations team, which tracks five North Korean threat actors, has a unique perspective on the country’s evolution as a global cybersecurity threat and the many ways it has used cyber capabilities to achieve its goals.
In this episode, Adam and Cristian trace the history of North Korean cyber operations from its early days of destructive attacks to its focus on financial gain and espionage. Tune in for the answers to questions such as: How does North Korea discover its cyber talent? When did it pivot to cryptocurrency theft? And why does CrowdStrike track North Korean adversaries under the name CHOLLIMA? Come for the history, stay for Cristian’s singing skills in this conversation about the complex and changing world of North Korean cyber activity.
 
Check out some the CHOLLIMAs we track here: 
https://www.crowdstrike.com/adversaries/silent-chollima/
https://www.crowdstrike.com/adversaries/labyrinth-chollima/
https://www.crowdstrike.com/adversaries/ricochet-chollima/
https://www.crowdstrike.com/adversaries/velvet-chollima/
https://www.crowdstrike.com/adversaries/stardust-chollima/ 

AI Through the Defender’s Lens: A Chat with CrowdStrike’s Global CTO

Cristian is joined by CrowdStrike Global CTO Elia Zaitsev to revisit the world of AI and large language models (LLMs), this time from the perspective of modern defenders.
While this space has seen explosive growth in the past year, most organizations are still working to determine how LLM technology fits into their cybersecurity strategies. In this episode, Cristian and Elia unpack the rapid evolution of AI models — a trend the two consider both exciting and frightening — and examine how LLMs are empowering defenders, their effect on automation in the enterprise and why humans will continue to be part of the picture even as AI-powered tools evolve.
Additional Resources:
Five Questions Security Teams Need to Ask to Use Generative AI Responsibly
Introducing Charlotte AI, CrowdStrike’s Generative AI Security Analyst: Ushering in the Future of AI-Powered Cybersecurity

Inside Russia’s Laboratory of Cyber Operations — and Beyond

In mid-December 2023, an adversary CrowdStrike tracks as VOODOO BEAR targeted Ukrainian telecom provider Kyivstar, wreaking havoc and disrupting thousands of systems and assets.
The Russia-linked adversary has for years treated Ukraine as its “lab of offensive cyber operations”, testing attack techniques and demonstrating the destructive behavior it has become known for since it emerged in late 2010.
In this episode, Adam and Cristian dive into the details of the recent Kyivstar attack and how it aligns with VOODOO BEAR’s history of disruptive cyberattacks, both in Ukraine and around the world. They also pull back the curtain on the broad, complex history of Russian intrusion operations, shedding light on adversaries operating within the country and what has motivated them over the years.

Adversary Universe: 2023 Highlights

It has been a whirlwind year for the cybersecurity industry.
In this episode of the Adversary Universe podcast, we revisit clips from standout episodes of 2023. Tune in to catch pieces of our conversations on the evolution of cloud-focused cyberattacks, the rise of cyber activity from Iran and China, the process of discovering and mitigating vulnerabilities, the role of AI in the cyber threat landscape and more. For those who want to listen to the full episodes related to each of these clips, the episodes highlighted here are in the following order:
Adversaries and AI: Today’s Reality and Tomorrow’s Potential Data
Extortion Dethrones Ransomware as the Threat to Watch
Cloud Is the New Battleground
Invisible Threats: Discovering, Tracking and Mitigating Vulnerabilities
Have You Been Breached?
Urgent Care Required: The State of Healthcare Cybersecurity
Iran’s Rise from Nascent Threat Actor to Global Adversary
Inside China’s Evolution as a Global Security Threat

Inside the ”Alphabet Soup” of Incident Reporting Regulations

Organizations around the world must navigate a growing number of cyber incident reporting regulations mandated by government bodies.
In the U.S., these regulations come from agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and others. This “alphabet soup” of regulations, as Cristian puts it, can be tough for businesses to understand and follow — especially as the threat landscape evolves and compliance requirements change.In this episode, Cristian is joined by Drew Bagley, VP and Counsel for Privacy and Policy at CrowdStrike, to dig into the details of why these myriad regulations have emerged and shed some light on common questions: When does a breach need to be reported, and why is the timeline a hot debate topic? What is a “material breach”? How are adversaries using these regulations to their advantage? And most importantly, how should businesses respond to all of this? Tune in for these answers — and more.

Data Extortion Dethrones Ransomware as the Threat to Watch

Today’s adversaries are working smarter, not harder — and it’s clear in the way their tactics are evolving.
In this episode, Adam and Cristian explore the way adversaries are shifting their focus to data extortion. Instead of deploying noisy ransomware, more threat actors are quietly stealing data and threatening to publicly leak it if they’re not paid. Tune in to learn what’s driving this change, why data extortion is successful and what it means for organizations of all sizes and industries.
Get your copy of the CrowdStrike 2023 Overwatch Threat Hunting Report.Read this blog to learn about why threat hunting and intelligence are essential to detect and disrupt today’s adversaries, ultimately raising their cost of doing business: https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/crowdstrike-debuts-counter-adversary-operations-team/ 

Urgent Care Required: The State of Healthcare Cybersecurity

At a time when breaches make headlines daily, the healthcare sector is among the most popular adversary targets.
Cyberattacks against healthcare organizations have spiked in recent years, disrupting patient care, jeopardizing safety and privacy, and obstructing compliance with industry regulations. In this episode, Cristian is joined by Dennis Egan, director of healthcare services for CrowdStrike, and Drex DeFord, executive healthcare strategist at CrowdStrike, to discuss the impact of cyber threats against healthcare, challenges we see in the space, the urgent need for healthcare providers to strengthen their security and the steps they should take to defend against modern attacks.
Discover the targeting healthcare:
AQUATIC PANDA: https://www.crowdstrike.com/adversaries/aquatic-panda/
LABYRINTH CHOLLIMA: https://www.crowdstrike.com/adversaries/labyrinth-chollima/
Learn more about the cybersecurity issues Healthcare experiences: https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/healthcare-experiences-cybersecurity-emergencies/

Iran’s Rise from Nascent Threat Actor to Global Adversary

“Iran’s digital presence is something we don’t want to underestimate.”
Though its cyber activity has been making headlines during a dynamic past few weeks, Iran’s history as a major player in the threat landscape spans decades. In this episode, Adam and Cristian take you back to the days of Stuxnet and trace Iran’s evolution from nascent threat actor to prominent nation-state adversary. Tune in to learn how hacktivism has played a role in its history, why CrowdStrike uses “KITTEN” to categorize adversaries who operate on behalf of Iran, and how key political events and cyber threat activity have shaped its growth.