Alex Holden
Alex Holden is the founder and CISO of Hold Security, LLC. Under his leadership, Hold Security played a pivotal role in information security and threat intelligence, becoming one of the most recognizable names in its field. Mr. Holden researches minds and techniques of cyber criminals and helps our society to build better defenses against cyber-attacks.
Sessions
As cybersecurity defenders, our job is to prevent breaches. However, threat actors continue to succeed because they constantly evolve their techniques. In this session, I will show you some of the innovative attack vectors that malicious hackers use to target our infrastructure. You’ll learn how these techniques work and more importantly, how to leverage them for your own threat hunting.
Killnet built its reputation as a decentralized Russian hacktivist force - loud, chaotic, and conveniently aligned with Kremlin objectives. But under the surface, it was something else entirely: a centralized operation controlled by a small group, using noise and hate as cover.
This is the inside story of how a team of just nine people delivered a kill shot to destroy this illusion.
Through targeted investigation and direct engagement, we exposed Killnet’s critical weakness: a financial link to Solaris, at that time, one of Russia’s largest dark web drug markets. By publicly tying their operations to organized cybercrime - we disrupted their narrative, broke internal trust, and triggered full collapse. The result? Loss of state support, severed financial channels, and a rapid implosion of the group’s infrastructure.
We’ll walk through how we tracked Killnet’s leadership, exposed its frontman “KillMilk,” and uncovered the criminal network behind the public facade. Along the way, you’ll get a firsthand look at the real tactics - OSINT, infiltration, pressure points - that brought down one of the most visible cyber collectives.
This isn’t just a postmortem. It’s a case study in strategic disruption, showing how small teams can go head-to-head with well-funded adversaries - and win.
The Dark Web is a scary place. In order to deter the cybercrime, I feel confident exploring its dangerous grounds and know well how to use the Dark Web to defend the victims. I want to invite you on this journey of venturing far beyond your defense perimeter, where cyber criminals are just planning their attacks, and teach you how you can use this knowledge as defensive skills to prevent attacks from happening in the first place.