Enterprise security is facing a turning point as attackers abandon traditional malware in favor of stealthy, AI-powered intrusions. For today’s security leaders, the challenge is no longer just detecting files — it’s defending against invisible, fileless threats that exploit identities, cloud environments and the very infrastructure enterprises depend on.

CrowdStrike Inc. released two threat reports this year, in February and August, with one finding in particular that should make every enterprise security executive sit up and pay close attention. The company’s researchers found that from July 2024 through June 2025, 81% of cyberattacks were malware free. This meant that adversaries were increasingly using stealthier, AI-driven techniques such as credential abuse, lateral movement and evasion instead of dropping malicious files into system hardware. The outcomes are attacks that are much more difficult to detect, allowing threat actors to steal data and cause damage without being spotted.

“Armed with AI, highly capable adversaries are constantly upping their game, and the threats have never been greater and more sophisticated,” said Dave Vellante, executive analyst at theCUBE Research. “CrowdStrike has proven its leading platform and threat intelligence is a leading example of a best in class offering in the security space.”

TheCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, will be covering the latest news and announcements at Fal.Con in Las Vegas, September 16-17. Tune in for on-site reporting and exclusive interviews with industry executives, CISOs, threat researchers, security architects and incident response leaders. Explore the latest in AI-driven threat detection, SaaS and identity security, exposure management, and full-cycle managed detection and response. (* Disclosure below.)

Agentic vulnerability in enterprise security

CrowdStrike’s research findings underscore the urgency currently felt throughout the cybersecurity community to stay ahead of the bad actors in the use of artificial intelligence. The security world is still getting a handle on what AI will ultimately disrupt.

Agentic AI has emerged as a key area of concern. One report released earlier this summer found that the use of adversarial prompts to hack agentic AI applications was successful 100% of the time. CrowdStrike has been working with key industry leaders to address AI security concerns over the past year. This has included integration of the Falcon platform with Nvidia Corp.’s Enterprise AI Factory, bringing enterprise-grade protection directly into artificial intelligence infrastructure and model workflows.

“Cybersecurity has turned into an AI race,” said Daniel Bernard, chief business officer of CrowdStrike, in an interview with theCUBE. “Every single agent needs protection. If you look at the attack surface, it’s on an exponential rise. If you look at the amount of data that’s being produced in a day, let alone in an hour, it used to be what was produced in a year. This is all both a gold rush for adversaries, but it’s also the criticality of having cybersecurity that stops the breach has never been more profound.”

Strengthening hyperscaler alliances

Combatting the “gold rush” for adversaries will take industry collaboration, and CrowdStrike has been focused on extending alliances with its major hyperscaler partners. This also has an element of urgency as the company’s threat report released in August noted a 136% increase in cloud environment intrusions in the first half of 2025 alone.

In April, CrowdStrike announced a major expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud that included embedded protections across services such as Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run for serverless applications, and BigQuery for security analytics.

CrowdStrike also expanded its collaboration with Microsoft Corp. and Amazon Web Services Inc. in June. The company launched a strategic partnership with Microsoft to strengthen identification and tracking of threat actors across security platforms. AWS unveiled a new incident response service for its cloud platform in cooperation with CrowdStrike that supports Amazon Security Incident Response’s automated triage and investigation workflow.

Continued cooperation with hyperscalers will likely be part of the agenda at Fal.Con later this month as CrowdStrike deploys solutions that address vulnerabilities for enterprise IT.

“Speed is everything in cybersecurity,” Bernard said. “When cloud intrusions spread at ever-accelerating speeds, organizations can’t afford to wait hours – or days – for help.”

TheCUBE event livestream

Don’t miss theCUBE’s coverage of Fal.Con from Sept. 16-17, you can watch theCUBE’s event coverage on-demand after the event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch theCUBE’s coverage of Fal.Con, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE podcasts

SiliconANGLE’s “theCUBE Pod” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, which you can enjoy while on the go. During each podcast, SiliconANGLE’s John Furrier and Dave Vellante unpack the biggest trends in enterprise tech — from AI and cloud to regulation and workplace culture — with exclusive context and analysis.

SiliconANGLE also produces our weekly “Breaking Analysis” program, where Dave Vellante examines the top stories in enterprise tech, combining insights from theCUBE with spending data from Enterprise Technology Research, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Guests

During this year’s Fal.Con event, theCUBE analysts will speak with CrowdStrike’s CEO George Kurtz, president Mike Sentonas, CTO Elia Zaitsev and SVP of intelligence Adam Meyers. We’ll also be speaking with Stephen Harrison, chief information security officer of MGM Resorts International; Mor Levi, VP of detection, analysis and response at Salesforce; and Jaifar Al Mamari, head of cybersecurity at Vodafone Group, as well as other industry experts.

Tune in for exclusive insights.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Fal.Con. The sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Image: SiliconANGLE