Ever try to watch a cop show where the villain goes by four aliases? Hard to keep up, right?
That’s pretty much cybersecurity today.
The same hacking crew might be called one thing by Microsoft, something else by Google, and a third name by another security firm. It’s confusing—and confusion eats up precious time when a real incident hits.
Good news: Microsoft and CrowdStrike are working together on a common way to label hacker groups. Think of it as standardized name tags for cybercriminals. The goal isn’t just neatness—it’s speed. When everyone uses the same label, it’s easier to connect the dots: who’s attacking, how they operate, and how to shut them down.
Here’s the gist of the new scheme: groups get weather-themed names that hint at where they’re backed from or what they do. For example, state-sponsored actors from China include “Typhoon,” Russian groups include “Blizzard,” and other categories—like ransomware or commercial spyware operators—use terms such as “Tempest,” “Storm,” or “Tsunami.”
Why this matters in Chicagoland (and to you):
If you run a clinic, a charter school, an insurance agency, a local government office, or a nonprofit, you don’t have time to decode aliases during a breach. Clear, consistent names help your IT team—and partners like us—spot patterns faster, correlate alerts across tools, and respond decisively. Fewer missed signals. Quicker containment. Better protection for things like protected health information (PHI), student records, policyholder data, and donor information.
It’s a behind-the-scenes upgrade you won’t notice day to day—but when seconds count, a shared language can make all the difference. Less chaos. More action.
Want a plain-English assessment of your current defenses—and how this shift can sharpen your threat intel? We’ve got your back, Chicago. Let’s talk.
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