Inside the 2026 Cloudflare Threat Report: AI Deepfakes, Laptop Farms, and the Industrialization of Cybercrime
Host João Tomé is joined by Brian Carter and Chris Peacey to unpack the 2026 Cloudflare Threat Report and what it reveals about today’s cyber threat landscape.
Cybercrime is becoming increasingly industrialized.
In this episode of This Week in NET (#122), Brian Carter and Chris Peacey walk through the key findings from the 2026 Cloudflare Threat Report, highlighting how attackers are scaling operations and adopting new techniques.
We discuss the rise of hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks, identity weaponization, and how AI is accelerating the time between initial access and data theft. The conversation also explores how attackers hide activity inside legitimate cloud services and how state-sponsored groups continue to evolve their operations.
Another major theme is the growing use of deception and infiltration tactics. From deepfake hiring scams designed to place insiders inside companies to laptop farms used by North Korean operatives, attackers are finding new ways to bypass traditional defenses. The report also examines techniques like token theft used to bypass multifactor authentication (MFA) and human-in-the-loop phishing campaigns that build trust before launching an attack.
The episode closes with practical advice for security leaders and defenders on how to think about third-party risks, infrastructure disruption, and the broader ecosystem that supports modern cybercrime.
Check the full 2026 Cloudflare Threat Report
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