The fight against cybercrime continues because threat actors have adapted their strategies to avoid deterrents, but law enforcement still operates in silos.
August 6, 2026
Black Hat USA 2026 – Las Vegas – Artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency enablement have propelled attackers to new levels of sophistication, coordination, and scale, and it's put pressure on law enforcement to adapt.
Ecosystems across the threat landscape have converged due to affiliate models that allow non-state actors to conduct ransomware-as-a-service, pig butchering, and romance scams. Although they may be less technically savvy compared to well-resourced nation-state actors, they learned how to inflict the same damage, draining dollars from individuals and organizations.
At Black Hat USA 2026, Carole House, CEO of Penumbra Strategies and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, led a session titled "Deny. Disrupt. Dismantle. Breaking the Business Model of Cybercrime in the Gray Zone" that examined these trends. She emphasized that "no single actor controls enough to be deterred by law enforcement actions" and called for a shift in strategy to close the gap between the coordination of attackers and the lack of coordination on behalf of law enforcement agencies.
