Two recent industry reports validate CrowdStrike’s leadership in the identity threat detection and response (ITDR) market: 

• Frost & Sullivan has named CrowdStrike its 2026 Company of the Year for Identity Threat Detection and Response
• GigaOm has positioned CrowdStrike as a Leader and Fast Mover in the 2026 GigaOm Radar for Identity Threat Detection and Response

Identity is the front line of modern cyberattacks. Today’s adversaries log in and use legitimate identities to move laterally, escalate privileges, and operate inside legitimate sessions as trusted users. They are moving fast — the fastest eCrime breakout time recorded in 2025 was 27 seconds — and they’re gaining an advantage over security teams who can’t keep pace.

The requirements for identity security have changed, fueled by AI agents transforming business processes and operating with machine speed and elevated privileges. Identity risk has become continuous, yet traditional identity tools still rely on static access and fragmented controls. Organizations relying on these legacy models struggle to correlate risk in real time or stop attacks before they escalate. 

ITDR has rapidly become a critical security layer as the market shifts toward a continuous identity model that detects threats and continuously verifies and enforces access in real time. CrowdStrike Falcon® Next-Gen Identity Security advances the market beyond static access controls and gives agentic enterprises the protection they need.

These recognitions signal that the ITDR market is converging. CrowdStrike is defining where it’s going.

Frost & Sullivan: Validating a Unified, Continuous Identity Model

Frost & Sullivan’s recognition of CrowdStrike as Company of the Year for ITDR highlights how identity security must be delivered as a unified, continuous, real-time control system.

“CrowdStrike’s unified, cloud native platform that delivers end-to-end identity visibility, just-in-time privileges, behavioral analytics, and automated response across human and non-human identities enables a significant competitive advantage,” Frost & Sullivan states in its write-up. 

The analysis emphasizes CrowdStrike’s ability to deliver:

• Continuous, real-time visibility across human, non-human, and AI identities
• Behavioral, context-driven detection 
• Zero standing privileges through needs-based, context-aware access
• Automated response and remediation at machine speed

The result is full end-to-end identity security. With CrowdStrike Falcon® Fusion SOAR workflows, customers can automatically reset compromised passwords, remediate risky accounts in batches, and enforce conditional access or privilege controls based on real-time risk scores. Customers gain real-time visibility into AI and SaaS agents, including permissions, data access, and activity, and can monitor how these identities interact with sensitive systems and datasets over time.

Frost & Sullivan emphasizes the benefits of CrowdStrike’s platform approach. Falcon Next-Gen Identity Security is delivered from the unified CrowdStrike Falcon® platform, which is built on a cloud-native architecture that treats identity as a first-class security signal alongside endpoint and cloud data. Because its capabilities are delivered through one platform, organizations can avoid the complexity of integrating multiple tools and operationalize ITDR best practices in days. 

The impact of the Falcon platform is quick and measurable. Frost & Sullivan highlights a real-world deployment of Falcon Next-Gen Identity Security in which an organization immediately discovered 45,000 unused accounts, 2,500 compromised passwords, 42,000 stealth admin accounts, and 48,000 accounts with privileged escalation paths, which collectively represent massive standing risk.

“By consolidating fragmented tools, reducing operational complexity, and providing high fidelity detections with machine speed response, CrowdStrike delivers superior price/performance value and a consistently strong customer experience,” Frost & Sullivan says.

GigaOm: Leadership Defined by Execution and Momentum

While Frost & Sullivan validates CrowdStrike’s model, GigaOm highlights our execution. CrowdStrike’s recognition as a Leader and Fast Mover in the 2026 GigaOm Radar for Identity Threat Detection and Response reinforces our market leadership and innovation velocity.

CrowdStrike achieved high scoring in Key Features with 4.6/5, Emerging Features with 4.3, and Business Criteria with 4.7. GigaOm’s analysis highlights several key strengths including:

Non-Human Identity Security 

Identity threats are evolving as organizations adopt more SaaS applications and autonomous AI agents, each of which is backed by human and non-human identities with persistent access to systems, applications, and sensitive data.

CrowdStrike secures every identity type across every environment, with comprehensive non-human identity discovery across cloud, on-premises, AI agent platform, and SaaS. It shares context including linked accounts, privileges, and cloud resource access; detects anomalies and behavioral deviations; and provides risk scoring for non-human identities. The outcome is full protection across the modern identity attack surface.

AI-Enhanced SecOps 

CrowdStrike operationalizes AI as a core part of detection and response. CrowdStrike® Charlotte AI™ performs agentic triage and investigation, while Falcon Fusion SOAR automates response. 

As stated in the GigaOm report: “CrowdStrike’s Charlotte AI is a deeply integrated AI copilot with agentic capabilities powered by generative AI and specialized agents. It supports natural language queries across Falcon data, automated detection triage, priority and confidence scoring, and step-by-step response guidance.”

Charlotte AI supports advanced automation through tight integration with Falcon Fusion SOAR, which is also natively integrated into the Falcon platform and provides a no-code automation and orchestration engine that enables teams to automate end-to-end response workflows. Falcon Fusion SOAR offers over 1,500 automated actions, including first-party and third-party actions that can be executed either via CrowdStrike or through integrations with other tools.

The Future of ITDR Is Continuous Identity

Across both reports, a clear pattern emerges. The top priority for identity security is continuously securing access. Organizations must continuously verify access, evaluate risk using real-time signals, dynamically adjust and revoke privileges, and immediately connect detection and enforcement.

These recognitions reflect where the market is going. CrowdStrike’s advantage is the Falcon platform was built for this shift. It already unifies identity, endpoint, cloud, and SaaS security and enriches it with real-time telemetry, threat intelligence, and AI. As identity security becomes a continuous control system, CrowdStrike is the best-equipped to drive the market forward. 

Additional Resources

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Infostealers are among the most persistent and damaging strains of malware affecting individuals and organizations worldwide. These stealthy and malicious programs often go unnoticed, quietly infiltrating devices to steal sensitive data and relay it to cybercriminals. From session tokens and login credentials to financial information and browser-stored data, infostealers pose a grave risk to organizations. 

In this blog, we’ll provide a comprehensive overview of what infostealers are, how they operate, and the history of these threats. We’ll also dive into why some traditional security solutions and extension-based security solutions fall short in combating them. Finally, we’ll detail whyCrowdStrike is uniquely positioned to defend against this consistent threat and deliver real identity security for modern organizations. 

What Is an Infostealer? 

An infostealer is a type of malware specifically designed to do what its name suggests: steal sensitive information. Often deployed through phishing emails, malicious downloads, compromised websites, or exploited vulnerabilities, infostealers can harvest: 

• Login credentials 
• Session tokens for active accounts 
• Browser-stored autofill data and cookies 
• Financial data, including credit card information and cryptocurrency wallets 
• System and network configurations 

Infostealers differ from threats like ransomware because they operate quietly in the background. They often go undetected while transmitting the data they harvest to a remote command-and-control (C2) server. Infostealers are particularly dangerous because they can lead to identity theft through session hijacking, which enables threat actors to use stolen session tokens to impersonate users and access sensitive systems via their login credentials without requiring a multifactor authentication (MFA) challenge or the victim’s password. 

The History of Infostealers 

Infostealers have been an active threat since the mid 2000s. Often credited as the first widespread infostealer is the infamous Zeus virus, aka Zbot. Zeus infected devices via phishing and drive-by downloads, targeting financial institutions to capture banking credentials. Since then, infostealers have evolved greatly in sophistication, scale, and intensity.  

Here are some notable infostealers that have made their way onto devices over the years: 

• Zeus (2007-2010): Pioneered modern identity security threats with its ability to intercept online banking sessions 
• Emotet (2014-2021): Initially a banking trojan, later expanded to deliver other malware including infostealers 
• Racoon Stealer (2019-present): Sold as malware as a service, targeting browsers, email clients, and cryptocurrency wallets 
• Lumma Stealer (2023-present): Compromised hundreds of thousands of devices by stealing browser-stored credentials and session tokens 

This malware category has thrived due to the value of stolen credentials and session hijacking opportunities on underground markets. A single valid session token for a corporate system can be worth tens of thousands of dollars on dark web forums. 

How Infostealers Operate: Tactics and Timeline 

The infostealers most used today typically follow a lifecycle like the following:  

• They are delivered through phishing emails, malvertising, pirated software, or apps with vulnerabilities 
• The infostealer’s payload installs quietly in the background, avoiding detection by traditional antivirus solutions 
• Once installed on a device, the infostealer begins harvesting data like session tokens, cookies, credentials, and financial details 
• After collecting data, the infostealer transmits the information to the attacker’s remote infrastructure 
• After exfiltration, some infostealers will remain persistent, maintaining access for ongoing surveillance and data theft

Consequences of an Infostealer Attack 

The impact of an infostealer attack can be devastating. Because infostealers quietly extract sensitive data, organizations often remain unaware until significant damage has been done. Here are some of the most serious consequences organizations can face: 

Account Takeover via Session Hijacking

Session hijacking is arguably the most dangerous. By stealing session tokens, attackers can impersonate legitimate users without needing their passwords. This means even accounts protected by multifactor authentication can be compromised. From corporate email accounts to cloud dashboards and financial portals, these unauthorized logins can lead to data leaks, financial theft, and unauthorized transactions.

Credential Theft and Identity Fraud

Infostealers harvest login credentials stored in browsers, including those for email, banking, cloud services, and social media accounts. This sensitive information is often sold on the dark web, giving way to identity fraud. Attackers may open new accounts in a victim’s name, conduct unauthorized purchases, or initiate scams.

Data Breaches and Compliance Violations

When a threat actor hijacks session tokens, they gain access to sensitive corporate data, intellectual property, and potentially customer information. A single compromised session can lead to a major data breach. This often results in regulatory penalties under data protection laws, reputational damage, and legal liabilities.

Financial Losses

Infostealers can extract financial data, credit card numbers, and cryptocurrency wallet keys unnoticed. The direct financial impact can be immediate, as attackers drain wallets or make unauthorized transactions. Additionally, the costs of incident response, system restoration, legal actions, and customer notification can amount to millions of dollars for affected businesses. 

Long-Term Brand and Trust Damage

Victims of infostealer attacks often suffer long-term reputational harm. Clients, partners, and customers may lose trust in a company’s ability to protect sensitive data, leading to lost contracts, customer churn, and competitive disadvantage. 

Why Extension-Based Security Solutions Can’t Stop Infostealers 

Today, some enterprise organizations rely on browser extension-based security tools to shore up their identity security. While these solutions can sometimes provide valuable features such as phishing protection and the management of cookies, they are fundamentally limited in their ability to counter advanced infostealers. They have limited access to browser internals, no control over HTTP traffic, often only focus on cookie protection, and tend to be reactive in nature.

How CrowdStrike Stops Infostealers and Session Hijacking 

Protecting against session hijacking, session token theft, and identity-based attacks requires a fundamentally different approach. CrowdStrike’s browser security technology operates inside the browser itself. We offer:

Deep Browser Integration

CrowdStrike integrates directly into the browser environment, giving it privileged access to internal session storage, runtime data, and session management processes. This allows us to actively monitor, secure, and encrypt session tokens before they can be stolen.

Comprehensive Identity Security

CrowdStrike’s solution goes beyond cookie protection to protect all browser-stored credentials, autofill data, session tokens, and sensitive transaction data. Our real-time threat detection engine identifies unauthorized data exfiltration attempts and halts them before damage occurs.

Real-Time Session Hijacking Prevention

By continuously validating the integrity and security context of active sessions, CrowdStrike prevents attackers from using stolen session tokens to gain access to systems. If a suspicious session is detected, it’s immediately invalidated and the user is alerted.

HTTP Traffic Visibility

CrowdStrike’s technology provides secure oversight of HTTP and HTTPS communications without compromising user privacy. This allows for the detection of anomalous traffic patterns associated with infostealers and the prevention of data exfiltration over encrypted channels.

Adaptive Threat Response

The CrowdStrike Falcon® platform uses advanced behavioral analytics and machine learning to identify previously unknown infostealers, including zero-day variants. CrowdStrike stops threats dynamically, even when no signature or indicator of compromise exists. 

The Future of Identity Security

Infostealers represent one of the fastest growing and most dangerous classes of malware out there today. Their ability to harvest login details, session tokens, and sensitive personal data makes them a formidable threat to both individuals and enterprises. While browser extension-based security tools offer partial protection, they are fundamentally incapable of stopping advanced infostealers due to limited browser access, no control over HTTP traffic, and narrow cookie-focused defenses. 

CrowdStrike delivers a proactive, deeply integrated browser protection solution that ensures real identity security, prevents session hijacking, and stops infostealers before they can do harm.

Additional Resources

The post How to Protect Identities and Sessions from Infostealers appeared first on MASSIVE News.

In a striking case of doing the opposite of what it’s supposed to do, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) left its most sensitive digital passwords sitting in plain sight on the public internet for months.

Think of it like this: imagine the agency that’s supposed to protect America’s digital locks accidentally left all the keys to those locks sitting in a public park. And worse, the keys had labels on them that said exactly what doors they opened.

Someone working for a contractor hired by CISA used a website called GitHub (commonly used by computer programmers) to move work files home. Instead of using secure methods, they just uploaded everything — including passwords written out in plain text.

The folder was even named “Private-CISA,” as if the label alone would keep it secret. It wasn’t.

According to security experts, the exposed files contained administrative passwords to three major cloud servers and login credentials for dozens of internal systems. One file literally listed usernames and passwords in a spreadsheet.

An expert who specializes in finding exposed secrets online called it “the worst leak that I’ve witnessed in my career.” The exposed access could have allowed hackers to break into the agency’s most secure systems.

The folder was created in November and wasn’t fixed until this month — meaning the passwords were publicly available for about six months.

CISA claims no one actually used these passwords to break in. But that’s like leaving your house unlocked for six months and then saying it’s okay because you don’t think anyone went inside.

This disaster comes as CISA is already struggling. The agency has been described as chaotic and disorganized, with leadership positions unfilled. The Trump administration is also planning major budget cuts to the agency.

It’s a stark irony: the government agency responsible for keeping America’s digital infrastructure safe just proved it can’t even keep its own passwords safe.

The CISA credential leak exposes broader systemic vulnerabilities within federal cybersecurity infrastructure. Security protocols require that sensitive credentials never be stored in unencrypted, plain-text formats, yet this fundamental principle was violated by a contractor employee using unsecured methods to transfer files.

The six-month window during which credentials remained exposed raises serious questions about CISA’s internal monitoring and code repository scanning practices. Standard industry tools can automatically detect exposed secrets on GitHub, suggesting CISA either lacked such monitoring or failed to implement it effectively.

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