Cybersecurity

CrowdStrike 2026 Global Threat Report

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Acrobat CrowdStrike 2026 Global Threat Report
Organizational Author: CrowdStrike
Source: https://www.crowdstrike.com

YEAR OF THE EVASIVE ADVERSARY

The world is operating in the agentic era. Artificial intelligence is embedded across the modern enterprise. Agents write code, analyze data, orchestrate workflows, and make decisions at machine speed. Every layer of the enterprise is becoming faster and more automated.

The adversary is operating in the agentic era as well. In 2025, AI-enabled adversaries increased attacks by 89% year-over-year. AI accelerated phishing and automated reconnaissance, shortening the time from initial access to impact. It elevated less sophisticated threat actors and amplified the most advanced ones. It compressed the time between intent and execution.

AI has also introduced a new dimension of risk: adversaries targeting the very AI systems Read More

CryptoLocker Was Just the Beginning

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Back in 2013, CryptoLocker was terrifying enough. It didn’t sneak in to steal your passwords or spy on your browsing habits, no!, it marched straight in, slammed the door behind it, encrypted everything in sight, and flashed a blinking red ransom note demanding Bitcoin like a digital hostage negotiator with a countdown clock. It was bold, it was brutal, and it was the first time many people realized: your files could be locked up and leveraged against you with no Hollywood-style hacker, just a suspicious ZIP file in your inbox.

CryptoLocker didn’t need a flashy exploit or deep system knowledge. It weaponized trust disguised as invoices, delivery slips, or bank statements and lured users into opening attachments that detonated silently in the background. Once triggered, it encrypted documents, photos, spreadsheets, and anything else it could get its hands on, and then calmly asked for payment in Bitcoin, which, at the time, still sounded like something from a hacker movie.

But that was then, the opening act. What followed after my first article, was a decade-long escalation that turned ransomware from a nuisance

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