“It would not be an understatement to say that China is the number one national security concern that I think we have here in the West.”

China’s offensive cyber activity has undergone a massive shift: What used to be simple smash-and-grab operations in the mid-2000s have evolved into sophisticated business models. We got a lens into this environment through a leak stemming from Chinese company I-Soon, whose data provided a narrow but revealing glimpse into the Chinese cyber contractor marketplace.

I-Soon is a mid-sized contractor that has been operating since 2010. It provides state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) cyber operations and tools, surveillance products and training for public security agencies, intelligence services and the military. The leak, which came from an anonymous GitHub user, included its internal documents and employee chat logs. These shed light on its products, services and customers as well as how some China-nexus adversaries are connected and sharing tools and capabilities.

Adam and Cristian take a deep dive into these findings and how Chinese offensive cyber operations reached this point. They also dig into which PANDA adversaries are connected to I-Soon, how the cyber contractor recruits talent and what we learned about its disgruntled staff. The key takeaway? Leaks like this won’t stop adversaries — and China’s cyber operations aren’t slowing down.

It has been another busy year for defenders and adversaries alike. As we wrap up 2024, Adam and Cristian reflect on the nation-state and eCrime threat activity that defined this year and what they expect as we head into 2025.

Adversaries have realized their time-honored attack methods involving clunky malware and malicious attachments are no longer working, largely due to endpoint detection and response tools alerting security teams to their activity. To improve their success rate, many are turning to cross-domain attacks.

Cross-domain attacks span multiple domains within an organization’s environment; namely, identity, endpoint and cloud. An adversary most often starts with a set of stolen credentials, which allows them to log in and operate under the guise of a legitimate employee. From there, they might target the cloud control plane to access more accounts or pivot to unmanaged devices. All the while, they move silently, achieving their goals without triggering alarms.

“The adversaries have really figured out how to operate from the shadows more effectively,” Adam says.

In this episode, he and Cristian discuss how cross-domain attacks unfold in a target environment; which adversaries are adopting this tradecraft; and how organizations can better detect, identify and mitigate these threats before it’s too late.

Watch our Cyber Threat Summit (focused on the rise of cross-domain attacks) on-demand: https://www.crowdstrike.com/resources/crowdcasts/cyber-threat-summit/

On Nov. 19, 2024, Adam testified in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law on Chinese cyber threats to critical infrastructure. This was the first time he publicly spoke about LIMINAL PANDA, a China-nexus state-sponsored threat actor that has been targeting telecommunications organizations since at least 2020.

LIMINAL PANDA is a newly named adversary, but CrowdStrike has been tracking its activity for over three years. It uses custom tools and demonstrates extensive knowledge of telco networks, including the connections between providers. And it's not alone: There are multiple adversaries targeting telcos, with good reason — the access they grant, and the data they possess, is a gold mine for threat actors.

But LIMINAL PANDA’s activity does more than showcase why critical infrastructure is a valuable target. It also represents how Chinese cyber activity has evolved since the mid-2000s, when it mostly involved “smash and grab” operations. Now, China has refined its espionage operations to conduct subtle and advanced attacks targeting critical infrastructure entities around the world.

In this episode, Adam and Cristian dig deep into the discovery of LIMINAL PANDA, the maturation of Chinese cyber operations and the scary consequences of telco-focused cyberattacks. Adam shares more about his congressional testimony and the value of keeping government officials informed on adversary activity. Come for Adam and Cristian’s Thanksgiving recipes, and stay for a deep-dive on this evolving nation-state threat, in this episode of the Adversary Universe podcast.

Read Adam's testimony here: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/big-hacks-and-big-tech-chinas-cybersecurity-threat

If a business wants to know what an adversary might be capable of, they can seek the help of a red team. These cybersecurity professionals are tasked with emulating adversary activity to achieve specific objectives in their clients’ environments. Their goal is to find an organization’s weaknesses — before a real adversary does — so it can strengthen its security posture. But what does a red team actually do, and who are the people on these teams?

In this episode, Cristian is joined by CrowdStrike Director of Professional Services Vincent Uguccioni and Professional Services Principal Consultant Brent Harrell to dive into all things red teaming. Both seasoned experts with fascinating backgrounds, Vincent and Brent define what red teaming is (and what it isn’t), explain how it has evolved, debunk common misconceptions about what red teamers do and explain the value of the many different skills the members of a red team have.

The goal of the red team is to help, not hurt. Red teamers may need to think like an adversary when they’re navigating a client environment, but their broader strategy involves collaborating with the client and blue team to guide remediation and improve the client's security. Vincent and Brent also walk us through the process of a red team engagement, from initial client discussions to final reporting, and share how they adjust their approaches as adversary techniques evolve. And if you’re interested in becoming a red teamer, they share some guidance for that as well.

On a related note, we recently introduced CrowdStrike AI Red Team Services. Read our blog for more details: https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/blog/crowdstrike-launches-ai-red-team-services/

China and Taiwan have a long history of geopolitical tension that has evolved from land and sea to cyberspace. Relations between the two recently took an interesting turn when the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) claimed hacktivist entity Anonymous 64 targeted China and its territories with attempted disinformation and public communication disruption. The Chinese government further alleged the activity was directed by the Taiwanese government, whose officials are investigating the activity and expressed the claims are false.

These allegations mark an interesting shift in the relations between China and Taiwan. In this episode, Adam and Cristian start with a 50,000-foot view of their nuanced, tense history. They define and discuss the organizations involved in these events and the details of their claims, and they share what we know about Anonymous 64. Why is this news significant? What are the geopolitical implications? And where have we seen similar activity in other regions?

It is important to note that CrowdStrike has not independently verified the Chinese government’s accusations. Tune in to hear more about a story that blends politics, military strategy and digital warfare.

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.

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.

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.

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.