Episode 9: Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 with Special Guest Steve Elovitz

In this episode of Know Your Adversary, Jared Atkinson and Justin Kohler are joined by Steve Elovitz of Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42, where he leads service delivery across North America. With years of incident response experience, including time at Mandiant, Steve shares what it’s like responding to hundreds of real-world security incidents each year. The conversation explores how modern adversaries operate once inside an environment and why identity has become a primary entry point for many attacks.Steve breaks down the attack patterns his team most frequently sees during incident response engagements. These often begin with identity compromise through phishing, password spraying, or social engineering, followed by lateral movement and privilege escalation. The group also discusses how attackers expand access across hybrid environments by targeting SaaS platforms, developer systems, and cloud identity providers. Along the way, they examine common misconceptions around MFA and privileged access management, and why understanding attack paths helps defenders see how adversaries actually move through complex environments.