It’s no secret that we’re big believers in cybersecurity exposure for any long-term investment portfolio. In case there was any doubt, Jim Cramer’s recent conversation with CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz ought to be persuasive. On Tuesday night on ” Mad Money ,” Kurtz told Jim about North Korea’s network of covert IT professionals leveraging generative artificial intelligence to quietly infiltrate companies. It’s clear-cut evidence of how sophisticated cyber threats have become. Kurtz’s comments drove home the importance of cybersecurity in the AI age — and our portfolio reflects that through our ownership of CrowdStrike and rival Palo Alto Networks . “AI is being used to create resumes, to create backgrounds, to create LinkedIn profiles, to make it look like a North Korean operative is a real person,” Kurtz said. “Many times, the employer never even sees this person. They get hired. They get a computer, and that computer automatically goes to what’s known as a laptop farm, and then North Korean operatives access that once it’s on the network. And then, it’s game over.” “We found this leveraging some technology that we built over two years ago,” Kurtz continued. “We work with our customers to refine this all the time. But this is what we’re up against. AI is democratizing destruction. It’s making it easier and faster for the adversaries to be able to get in and look legitimate, and create these sort of attacks.” CrowdStrike highlighted some of its work in this area in its 2025 Threat Hunting Report . In addition, an in-depth CNN investigation published this summer also shone a light on North Korean IT workers using AI to breach companies. Kurtz said the innovative ways these attacks are carried out underscore why companies can no longer operate without comprehensive defenses in place. “You need AI to protect [against] AI, and that’s what we’re doing,” Kurtz told Cramer. One of the big trends within the emerging field is the rise of so-called agentic AI systems. These systems are capable of making decisions and taking action with limited human oversight. Salesforce , another Club name, has made a big push into agents with its Agentforce platform. “The opportunity is 100x to protect AI agents,” Kurtz said, adding that CrowdStrike is in the “perfect spot” to lead the market. Kurtz’s comments come as the company was holding its annual Fal.Con event this week. During the conference’s first day, CrowdStrike announced the acquisition of Pangea, a startup focused on securing AI agents. The company plans to integrate Pangea’s technology into its Falcon cybersecurity platform. “Securing these autonomous agents is going to be the next wave of cybersecurity,” Jeff Marks, the Club’s director of portfolio analysis, said Wednesday during the Morning Meeting. The convergence of nation-state hacks and AI-enabled attacks makes it clear that companies cannot afford to cut back on their cybersecurity spending. That bodes particularly well for CrowdStrike, according to analysts at Wells Fargo. They really like what they’ve heard at Fal.Con. “CrowdStrike is by far the most advanced security platform in the industry, and the plethora of AI-based solutions announced today will further separate CrowdStrike from the competition,” the firm wrote in a note dated Wednesday, reiterating its buy-equivalent overweight rating and price target of $550. CrowdStrike’s Pangea announcement is part of its broader goal of building an autonomous security operations center that helps companies get smarter at monitoring, detecting, and analyzing security incidents using agents. “What George is working on is a comprehensive solution,” Jim said Wednesday, adding that agentics hacking is getting “so ferocious.” The Club continues to maintain our own buy-equivalent 1 rating on CrowdStrike and price target of $520. Likewise, we have a 1 rating on Palo Alto and a price target of $225. Even when Palo Alto shares got dinged this summer over concerns about its recent acquisition of CyberArk, we stayed positive. Palo Alto CEO also told CNBC last month about how AI helps the bad guys more than the good guys and what his company is doing to protect AI agents. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CRWD, PANW. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
