AI, Elections & Cloud Attacks: CrowdStrike’s Threat Report

Global cybersecurity leader CrowdStrike has redefined modern security with the world's most advanced cloud-native platform for protecting critical areas of enterprise risk – endpoints and cloud workloads, identity and data.

The 10th edition 2024 CrowdStrike Global Threat Report explores activities of some of the most prolific threat groups, and highlights the surge in stolen identity credentials being leveraged to exploit gaps in cloud environments and maximise the stealth, speed and impact of cyberattacks. The report digs into the disruptions of the global elections expected in 2024, as well as the exploitation of gen AI to launch more sophisticated attacks.

“Adversaries have faced a hardening attack surface thanks to huge advancements in threat defence technology and threat awareness. But they have responded by increasingly adopting and relying on techniques that empower them to move faster and evade detection - it took only 31 seconds for an adversary to drop initial discovery tools in an attempt to compromise victims this year,” Zeki Turedi, Field CTO Europe, CrowdStrike told Cyber Digital.

Turedi has been with the company since 2016, acting as a trusted advisor and strategist for organisations across Europe.

He is an influential, tenacious and highly motivated cybersecurity leader with professional experience specialising in Endpoint and Network Cyber Security, as well as extensive Incident Response and Forensic knowledge within Law Enforcement and the private sector.

“CISO’s and threat response teams must disrupt these adversaries faster than ever before. We can achieve this through adopting an adversary-focused approach as well as through next generation AI security tools that protect assets from all endpoints, remediate threats and ultimately stop breaches.”

AI, elections and further digitisation: Key findings from the report

“Over the course of 2023, CrowdStrike observed unprecedented stealthy operations from brazen eCrime groups, sophisticated nation-state actors and hacktivists targeting businesses in every sector spanning the globe. Rapidly evolving adversary tradecraft honed in on both cloud and identity with unheard of speed, while threat groups continued to experiment with new technologies, like GenAI, to increase the success and tempo of their malicious operations,” said Adam Meyers, Head of Counter Adversary Operations, CrowdStrike. 

“To defeat relentless adversaries, organisations must embrace a platform-approach, fueled by threat intelligence and hunting, to protect identity, prioritise cloud protection, and give comprehensive visibility into areas of enterprise risk.”

Key findings from the report include: 

• Steep increase in attack velocity: CrowdStrike has identified that the average breakout time is down to only 62 minutes from 79 in 2023, with the fastest recorded attack coming in at 2 minutes 7 seconds. 
• Credentials used for stealth attacks: Interactive intrusions and hands-on-keyboard activity have increased 60% as adversaries increasingly exploit stolen credentials to gain initial access at targeted organisations. 
• Cloud attacks: Challenges have increased for defenders looking to differentiate between normal and malicious user behaviour as attackers seek access to the cloud through valid credentials. CrowdStrike reports that cloud intrusions have increased by 75% overall with cloud-conscious cases amplifying by 110% year-over-year.
• AI exploitation: The report highlights how generative AI will likely be used for cyber activities in 2024 as the technology continues to gain popularity.

Global election targets: This year will see more than 40 democratic elections — CroStrike predicts that nation-state actors from China, Russia and Iran are highly likely to conduct mis-or disinformation operations to sow disruption against the backdrop of geo conflicts and global elections.

**************

Make sure you check out the latest industry news and insights at Cyber Magazine and also sign up to our global conference series - Tech & AI LIVE 2024

**************

Cyber Magazine is a BizClik brand 

*************