You know your competitor's business model, why not your adversary's?

Organizations often analyze their competitors in detail—understanding pricing, strategy, and market positioning. But when it comes to cyber adversaries, this business-minded lens is rarely applied. This talk explores why understanding the economic and operational models of attackers—ransomware gangs, data brokers, hacktivists—can radically improve security decision-making.

By framing threats in financial terms, from downtime impact to the going price of cracked credentials, we make risk real for non-technical stakeholders. And this insight isn't just important for CISOs. From the C-suite manager to the most technical operator, everyone benefits from speaking a shared economic language. Through practical examples and use cases, we’ll demonstrate how this mindset transforms risk discussions into something everyone—from boardroom to command line—can act on.