See cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s first Super Bowl ad

CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm famous for its work in some historical data breaches, aired its first Super Bowl commercial about one of the earliest data breaches—the Trojan Horse. CrowdStrike is perhaps best known for its role in analyzing the 2016 hack, which compromised documents from the Democratic National Committee during the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump presidential race. With its Super Bowl ad, CrowdStrike is promoting its data security work with private companies and entities, and warning of the rising risk of bad actors stealing data online. “Cyberattacks and impacts are more pervasive than ever,” CrowdStrike said in a press release ahead of the game. “And the Super Bowl stage offers the unique opportunity to raise awareness on how adversary-focused threat protection is necessary to protect against sophisticated attacks.” The 30-second commercial is a comedic and alternate-historical take on what would have happened if the city of Troy had a CrowdStrike security expert. The spot opens with the Greek army rolling up to the gates of Troy in the Trojan Horse, the story depicted in Homer’s “Odyssey.” In the ad, instead of opening the city, Troy has a technician analyze the horse with a basic laptop. The threat is detected, and the wooden horse, filled with ancient Greek troops, is sent hurtling toward a cliff. Of course, the Trojan Horse motif is a popular one in hacker circles, and the term is used to describe basic computer attacks. Trojan Horse software is malware designed to appear safe, so users willingly download it and then it infects their devices. CrowdStrike produced the Super Bowl commercial in-house, and credits production to RadicalMedia, visual effects to Framestore, and editing to Union Editorial. The spot is sure to stir up some more attention around the company, which is no stranger to online conspiracy theories. CrowdStrike’s work with the DNC, to uncover the culprits of the attack on its servers, put the company smack in the middle of the polarized political climate in the U.S. The DNC hack was linked to Russia, using phishing attacks to deploy malware dubbed Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear. CrowdStrike also analyzed the infamous 2014 Sony hack. CrowdStrike’s revenue jumped 57% to $1.6 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2023. The company, which has more than 20,000 customers, plans to report its full-year results in early March.

See cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s first Super Bowl ad

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