Get the key findings from the CRINK nation-state threat brief on China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, including SafeBreach State of the Breach data on what enterprise defenses miss and four steps to prove you can stop them.

What is the CRINK Axis?

CRINK refers to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, the four nation-states behind most state-sponsored cyber activity against Western organizations. All four target critical infrastructure, and their goal is often a persistent foothold rather than immediate damage.

Key Findings from the SafeBreach 2026 State of the Breach Report

• 28% of Russian GRU attacker actions were missed by enterprise defenses.
• More than 60% of organizations exposed harvestable credentials that enabled rapid privilege escalation.
• About 53% of tested attacks were blocked by endpoint controls, which puts industries that rely heavily on endpoint security at higher risk.

What’s Inside the Threat Brief

• Adversary profiles: How each CRINK nation operates and the groups behind the activity, including Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, Scattered Spider, Charming Kitten, MuddyWater, and Lazarus.
• Why CRINK matters now: Three reasons these actors are an urgent risk for security teams.
• What to do next: Four steps to move from threat intel to proof: prioritize by adversary, close identity gaps first, validate continuously, and validate, remediate, and re-validate.

For a deeper look at each adversary, read The CRINK Axis: A Definitive Guide to the Big Four Nation-State Threat Actors.