In this episode of Cyber Focus, Frank Cilluffo chats with Charles DeBeck, a cyber threat intelligence expert from Google Cloud, about the latest insights from their Threat Horizons report. They explore how cyber threats are evolving, particularly in cloud environments, with a focus on issues like weak passwords and system misconfigurations that leave organizations vulnerable. Charles also shares how criminals are increasingly using cloud services for their attacks and discusses the growing role of artificial intelligence in both defending against and carrying out cyber threats.

Main Topics Covered:

• Weak credentials and misconfigurations as top threats.
• The role of cloud infrastructure in modern cyber threats.
• Challenges and risks in serverless environments and hardcoded secrets.
• The impact of AI on both defense and adversarial activities.
• Outlook on the convergence of criminal and nation-state cyber activities.

Key Quotes:

• “Year after year, we see threat actors using weak credentials or no credentials or default credential services to get initial access as one” - Charles DeBeck
• “If you’re a threat actor and you break into a cloud environment you have access to a giant pool of resources that could be used for crypto mining. It’s the easiest way to turn illicit access into money. " - Charles DeBeck
• “Ransomware is what is on everyone’s mind. It's one of the most significant and prolific transfers of wealth from legitimate organizations to criminal actors. - Charles DeBeck
• We’re seeing the threat actors are really engaging in more because it’s a much more profitable endeavor for them and their seeing a lot more success in the overall marketplace. - Charles DeBeck
• "Secure-by-default policies are critical, and they must be mandatory, not optional." - Charles DeBeck

Relevant Links

https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/threat_horizons_report_h2_2024.pdf

Guest Bio:

Charles DeBeck is a Cyber Threat Intelligence Expert at Google Cloud. Charles brings over a decade of experience leading threat intelligence operations from the NSA, Deloitte and Touche and IBM. He strongly believes threat intelligence can help organizations make faster and more effective decisions.