Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast
Disrupting Cracked Cobalt Strike
Aug 14, 2024
In this enlightening discussion, Richard Boscovich, Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft, Jason Lyons, Principal Investigator at DCU, and Bob Erdman, Associate VP at Fortra, tackle the illegal use of cracked Cobalt Strike in cybercrime. They shed light on innovative DMCA strategies to combat piracy globally and discuss the significant impact of these initiatives on detection engineering. The trio also expresses optimism about extending these methods to other cyber threats, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors in enhancing cybersecurity.
38:40
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Quick takeaways
- The collaborative effort between Microsoft and Fortra effectively disrupted the distribution of cracked Cobalt Strike, significantly reducing its prevalence and impact on ransomware attacks.
- Utilizing a creative application of the DMCA, the teams established legal precedents to expedite takedowns of sites promoting cracked Cobalt Strike, enhancing their overall cybercrime combating strategy.
Deep dives
Cracked Cobalt Strike Takedown Initiative
A major initiative was launched to dismantle the use of cracked Cobalt Strike in ransomware attacks, initiated in collaboration with Fortra. This effort stemmed from a realization that many ransomware groups were leveraging cracked versions of Cobalt Strike to facilitate their attacks, which employ sophisticated lateral movement techniques to extract data from targets. By understanding the broader ransomware ecosystem, the teams coordinated their resources and strategies to effectively target various malware groups simultaneously. The operation aimed to disrupt the distribution of this tool and gather intelligence on threat actors utilizing it.
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