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CrowdStrike CEO Warns China-Backed Hackers Are Using AI to Launch Sophisticated Cyberattacks

MarketDash Editorial Team
5 days ago
CrowdStrike's George Kurtz sounded the alarm on AI-powered cyber threats during the company's Q3 earnings call, revealing that Chinese state-sponsored groups are deploying large language models to execute active intrusions—turning theoretical AI risks into present-day reality.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (CRWD) CEO George Kurtz delivered a sobering message during Tuesday's third-quarter earnings call: the age of AI-powered cyberattacks isn't some distant future scenario. It's happening right now, and nation-state adversaries are already weaponizing it.

The Rise of the "Agentic Workforce"

Kurtz painted a picture of how fundamentally the threat landscape is shifting. "AI is rapidly expanding the attack surface," he explained, pointing to how businesses are embracing what he called "the agentic workforce"—a new category of AI agents that operate with varying degrees of autonomy.

"Humans using agents to do more and agents working by themselves, each with access to data, applications, compute, and sometimes even other agents," Kurtz said. It's a brave new world of productivity, but it also creates fresh vulnerabilities that most companies haven't begun to think about seriously.

Here's where it gets interesting: the same technology democratizing software development is also democratizing hacking. "Now, just as anyone can use AI to vibe code and become a software engineer, anyone can now also vibe hack, becoming a sophisticated adversary with AI," Kurtz noted.

China's State-Sponsored Hackers Turn to LLMs

The threat isn't hypothetical. Kurtz revealed a recent incident that underscores the urgency: "Just a few weeks ago, a major AI company shared that China state-sponsored adversaries were using their LLM to create and operationalize active cyber intrusion agents." He didn't name the company, but the implications are clear.

"This is just one of the many AI-enabled attacks we've seen," he added. "The AI cyber battleground is no longer theoretical. It's now real."

CrowdStrike is positioning itself as the essential defense layer for this emerging reality. "CrowdStrike is both the armor and intelligence layer that keeps each agentic identity secure," Kurtz said, describing the company's approach as providing "security by design for the world's cloud and token factories."

Strong Quarter, but Market Remains Skeptical

The warnings came alongside solid financial results. CrowdStrike reported third-quarter revenue of $1.23 billion, up 22% year-over-year and ahead of the $1.22 billion consensus estimate. Earnings hit $0.96 per share, beating the $0.94 expectation.

The company also raised its full-year revenue outlook to a range of $4.797 billion to $4.807 billion, up from previous guidance of $4.749 billion to $4.805 billion.

Yet despite the beat-and-raise performance, the stock fell 2.11% in after-hours trading following the announcement. Shares had closed the regular session up 2.46% at $516.55 on Tuesday, but investors appeared to take profits rather than celebrate the results.

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CrowdStrike CEO Warns China-Backed Hackers Are Using AI to Launch Sophisticated Cyberattacks

MarketDash Editorial Team
5 days ago
CrowdStrike's George Kurtz sounded the alarm on AI-powered cyber threats during the company's Q3 earnings call, revealing that Chinese state-sponsored groups are deploying large language models to execute active intrusions—turning theoretical AI risks into present-day reality.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (CRWD) CEO George Kurtz delivered a sobering message during Tuesday's third-quarter earnings call: the age of AI-powered cyberattacks isn't some distant future scenario. It's happening right now, and nation-state adversaries are already weaponizing it.

The Rise of the "Agentic Workforce"

Kurtz painted a picture of how fundamentally the threat landscape is shifting. "AI is rapidly expanding the attack surface," he explained, pointing to how businesses are embracing what he called "the agentic workforce"—a new category of AI agents that operate with varying degrees of autonomy.

"Humans using agents to do more and agents working by themselves, each with access to data, applications, compute, and sometimes even other agents," Kurtz said. It's a brave new world of productivity, but it also creates fresh vulnerabilities that most companies haven't begun to think about seriously.

Here's where it gets interesting: the same technology democratizing software development is also democratizing hacking. "Now, just as anyone can use AI to vibe code and become a software engineer, anyone can now also vibe hack, becoming a sophisticated adversary with AI," Kurtz noted.

China's State-Sponsored Hackers Turn to LLMs

The threat isn't hypothetical. Kurtz revealed a recent incident that underscores the urgency: "Just a few weeks ago, a major AI company shared that China state-sponsored adversaries were using their LLM to create and operationalize active cyber intrusion agents." He didn't name the company, but the implications are clear.

"This is just one of the many AI-enabled attacks we've seen," he added. "The AI cyber battleground is no longer theoretical. It's now real."

CrowdStrike is positioning itself as the essential defense layer for this emerging reality. "CrowdStrike is both the armor and intelligence layer that keeps each agentic identity secure," Kurtz said, describing the company's approach as providing "security by design for the world's cloud and token factories."

Strong Quarter, but Market Remains Skeptical

The warnings came alongside solid financial results. CrowdStrike reported third-quarter revenue of $1.23 billion, up 22% year-over-year and ahead of the $1.22 billion consensus estimate. Earnings hit $0.96 per share, beating the $0.94 expectation.

The company also raised its full-year revenue outlook to a range of $4.797 billion to $4.807 billion, up from previous guidance of $4.749 billion to $4.805 billion.

Yet despite the beat-and-raise performance, the stock fell 2.11% in after-hours trading following the announcement. Shares had closed the regular session up 2.46% at $516.55 on Tuesday, but investors appeared to take profits rather than celebrate the results.