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PODCAST

Adversary Universe Podcast

Modern adversaries are relentless. Today’s threat actors target organizations around the world with sophisticated cyberattacks. Who are they? What are they after? And most importantly, how can you defend against them? Welcome to the Adversary Universe podcast, where CrowdStrike answers all of these questions — and more. Join our hosts, a pioneer in adversary intelligence and a specialist in cybersecurity technology, as they unmask the threat actors targeting your organization.

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All Episodes

36:11

2025 Wrapped: Updates on This Year’s Hottest Topics

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/12/30

This was a busy year for the Adversary Universe podcast. We covered the emergence of new adversaries, the weaponization of AI, critical CrowdStrike research, and how cyberattacks look in different regions of the world.To recap 2025, we’re revisiting the topics that resonated most with our listeners to share year-end updates. Adam and Cristian cover the I-Soon data leaks, evolution of China as a nation-state threat, re-emergence of SCATTERED SPIDER, and the latest in ransomware-as-a-service. Tune

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35:45

Is This Endgame? How Takedowns Are Reshaping eCrime

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/12/18

In November 2025, a major public-private sector collaboration took down three significant malware networks. Operation Endgame involved law enforcement agencies from six EU countries, Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., along with Europol and 30 private sector partners, including CrowdStrike. The dismantled infrastructure consisted of hundreds of thousands of infected computers containing several million stolen credentials.Operation Endgame was a critical disruption of adversary operations —

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34:27

Defrosting Cybersecurity’s Cold Cases with...

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/12/04

Not all cybercrimes are resolved. Some threat groups disappear completely, and some malware is never seen again. But sometimes, a long-dormant case is cracked open and elusive answers are found.Tillmann Werner, VP of Intelligence Production at CrowdStrike, has been a member of the CrowdStrike Intelligence team since 2012 and has analyzed many of these cold cases. In this episode, he joins Adam to chat about unresolved cyberattacks, the adversaries behind them, and cases that remained inactive for

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38:48

A Brief History of Ransomware

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/10/16

Ransomware is not new, but the ransomware of today is very different from the ransomware of 1989. Today’s episode doubles as a history lesson, as Adam and Cristian look back at how a prolific global threat has evolved over the decades.Gone are the days of malware arriving on floppy disks and victims waiting weeks to restore their systems in exchange for $200 ransom payments. “The early days of viruses were weird,” Adam points out. But much has changed since then. Several factors — the advent of

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33:45

Live at Black Hat: What’s AI Really Capable Of?

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/08/18

This year at Black Hat, the topic of AI was everywhere — from hallway chats to the expo floor. Adam and Cristian took a break from the action for a rare in-person conversation about how adversaries are weaponizing AI, how defenders are using agentic AI, and what we should all be thinking about as AI evolves as an offensive and defensive tool.The AI threat is real, and advanced adversaries in particular are using it to their advantage. They’re improving the wording in social engineering attacks,

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33:45

The Return of SCATTERED SPIDER

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/07/17

They never really left — they just got quieter, faster, and bolder. In this episode of the Adversary Universe podcast, Adam and Cristian trace the resurgence of SCATTERED SPIDER, one of today’s most aggressive and sophisticated adversary groups.Once known for SIM swapping and gaming community exploits, SCATTERED SPIDER has evolved into a high-speed, high-impact ransomware crew targeting the retail, insurance, and aviation sectors. Adam shares CrowdStrike’s front-line insights into how the group

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25:13

Ask Us (Almost) Anything: Threat Intel, Adversaries,...

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/07/03

You asked, and we answered. This episode of the Adversary Universe podcast takes a deep dive into questions from our listeners.What did you want to know? Well, a lot about adversaries, but also about career paths and the threat intel space. Tune in to hear the answers to questions like: • How did you break into the threat intelligence space? • Who is the first adversary CrowdStrike tracked? • Who is an adversary that keeps you up at night and why? • What was a

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20:31

Where AI Fits in the Adversary’s Toolbox

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/06/05

Would you rather have an adversary profile you based on your AI chat history or tell your AI chatbot to forget everything it knows about you?That’s one of many questions Adam and Cristian explore in this episode on how adversaries are integrating AI into cyberattacks. These days, it seems AI is everywhere — and that includes the adversary’s toolbox. Adam and Cristian describe multiple forms of malware that use AI in different ways, from identifying text in photos to writing code. And while these

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29:09

OCULAR SPIDER and the Rise of Ransomware-as-a-Service

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/04/10

Ransomware has become more difficult for organizations to defend against, but easier for adversaries to deploy. The rise of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) — a model in which ransomware operators write the malware and affiliates pay to launch it — has lowered the barrier to entry so threat actors of all skill levels can participate and profit.OCULAR SPIDER is one such operator. This adversary, newly named by CrowdStrike, is associated with the development of ransomware variants including Cyclops,

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23:44

Meet LUNAR SPIDER: The Inner Workings of an eCrime...

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/03/27

To anticipate threat actors’ behavior, we must understand them. That’s why CrowdStrike closely tracks the evolution and activity of 257 named adversaries, including the eCrime actor LUNAR SPIDER.“They almost behave like a startup; they’re constantly testing and innovating and developing what they’re doing,” Adam says of the group. “It’s an interesting paradigm when you think about how these eCrime actors operate.” In this episode, Adam and Cristian take a deep dive into the inner workings of

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31:21

NSOCKS: Insights into a Million-Dollar Residential...

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/03/13

When an adversary wants to target an organization, they want to make it look like they’re coming from a regional or local internet service provider. This makes their activity seem more legitimate and buys time until they get caught. Proxies, which adversaries can use to conceal the origin of malicious traffic, are essential to this process.NSOCKS is a residential proxy provider that CrowdStrike researchers dug into to learn more about how it was constructed and proactively identify how

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34:00

China’s Cyber Enterprise Grows: CrowdStrike 2025...

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/02/27

China’s cyber enterprise is rapidly growing: China-nexus activity was up 150% across industries in 2024, with a 200-300% surge in key sectors such as financial services, media, manufacturing, and industrials/engineering. CrowdStrike identified seven new China-nexus adversaries in 2024.“After decades investing in offensive cyber capabilities, China has achieved parity with some of the top players out there, and I think that is the thing that should terrify everybody,” Adam says. China-nexus threat

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27:26

A Deep Dive into DeepSeek and the Risks of Foreign LLMs

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/02/20

DeepSeek took the internet by storm earlier this year, making headlines and sparking conversations about its development, use, and associated risks. Today, Adam and Cristian take a deep dive into the new AI model.At a time when new AI models are constantly emerging, the launch of DeepSeek has led to questions and concerns around AI model security, data security, and national security. What is DeepSeek, and how was it trained? What are the risk implications of using it? Are there safe ways to

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36:13

See You I-Soon: A Peek at China’s Offensive Cyber...

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2025/01/16

“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

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33:01

The Most Prolific Adversaries and Threats of 2024

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2024/12/19

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.Tune in to hear their observations on changing eCrime activity in Latin America, Chinese adversaries evolving their tactics and targeting telecommunications entities, the disruption of eCrime operations in the United States and more. And of course, you’ll hear the stories and

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40:00

Cross-Domain Attacks: Know Them, Find Them, Stop Them

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2024/12/12

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

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39:59

LIMINAL PANDA and the Implications of Global Telco...

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2024/11/27

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

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47:39

Exploring Offensive Security with CrowdStrike Red...

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2024/11/07

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

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33:30

The Latest in China-Taiwan Cyber Tensions

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2024/10/24

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

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53:35

How CrowdStrike Tracked INDRIK SPIDER from Origin to...

Adversary Universe Podcast ·

2024/10/10

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

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