The CrowdStrike Global Threat Report, now in its tenth iteration, examines how adversaries’ behavior poses an ever-expanding risk to the security of organizations’ data and infrastructure. Armed with this critical information, organizations are better equipped to face evolving threats. Stealth was the pervading theme of the 2023 threat landscape.

It is a common refrain in security circles that “nobody loves their vulnerability management tool.” CrowdStrike may have just proved to be the exception. We are proud to announce that CrowdStrike is the only vendor named a Customers’ Choice in the 2024 Gartner “Voice of the Customer” Report for Vulnerability Assessment. In this report, CrowdStrike is the only vendor placed in the upper right quadrant, meaning we received a Customers’ Choice Distinction.

According to a 2023 Forbes article, 12.7% of U.S. workers work remotely and 28.2% have adopted a hybrid work schedule. As device and usage trends continue to shift, organizations must find ways to secure remote endpoints that could grant adversaries access if left vulnerable.

As organizations shift their applications and operations to the cloud and increasingly drive revenues through software, cloud-native applications and APIs have emerged among the greatest areas of modern security risk.

As organizations move more of their business-critical applications to the cloud, adversaries are shifting their tactics accordingly. And within the cloud, it’s clear that cybercriminals are setting their sights on software applications: In fact, industry data shows 8 out of the top 10 breaches in 2023 were related to applications.

CrowdStrike researchers have identified a HijackLoader (aka IDAT Loader) sample that employs sophisticated evasion techniques to enhance the complexity of the threat. HijackLoader, an increasingly popular tool among adversaries for deploying additional payloads and tooling, continues to evolve as its developers experiment and enhance its capabilities.