The Modern Threat Landscape

Mike Klepper opens by framing threat actors as rational agents who pursue value, whether monetary, social, or political. He argues that knowing what an attacker wants gives defenders a more accurate picture of their risk. He points to cybercrime-as-a-service platforms that lower the barrier to entry, the very low odds of prosecution, and geopolitically motivated attacks. He also notes that attackers increasingly target credentials and identities, and edge appliances that cannot run endpoint agents.

The middle section covers the dark web, which hosts both legitimate sites and criminal marketplaces. Klepper explains that stolen credentials are traded and resold for long periods, and that password reuse keeps them useful. He recommends monitoring for exposed credentials and, after a malware infection, resetting sessions and every other secret the device could reach. He then covers deepfakes: cloned voices used in virtual kidnapping scams, a political robocall, face-swapped video calls that led to large fraudulent transfers, and synthetic explicit content used for extortion.

The closing section looks at AI on both sides. Attackers use it for profiling, phishing, influence operations and faster malware development, while organizations face bias, workforce and third-party risks from their own adoption. Suggested mitigations include clear policy, user training, content watermarking, delays and verification steps for high-risk requests, and treating AI vendors as part of third-party risk management.