The Rise and Fall of the Trickbot and Conti Empires
Alex Holden
BSides NYC 2023 (0x04) · Day 1 · Talk - Other
In a captivating presentation at BSides NYC, Alex Holden, CEO of Hold Security, unveiled the intricate, often turbulent, history of two of the most notorious cybercriminal organizations of the past decade: **Trickbot** and **Conti**. This talk provided an unprecedented look behind the curtain of these ransomware empires, detailing their evolution from initial infection vectors to multi-million dollar operations, their internal power struggles, and their eventual, dramatic collapse. Leveraging years of deep-seated threat intelligence, including unique access to their internal communications and infrastructure, Holden offered a rare glimpse into the minds and methodologies of the adversaries.
AI review
Holden is presenting primary-source intelligence on Trickbot/Conti that most researchers only read about secondhand — admin rights to the Jabber server, real-time Conti Leaks access before the public drop, and granular operational detail on the hospital retaliation campaign. This is a threat intel briefing judged on the quality of the operator perspective and the data behind the claims, and on both counts it delivers.