AI broke the cybersecurity world. What’s next?
Today, I’m talking with Alex Stamos, chief security officer at Cognition and longtime cybersecurity expert, about what a mess cybersecurity is right now. This episode is part one of a special series looking at AI in real life. I’ve always enjoyed talking to Alex because he’s so direct, and you’re going to hear him say that the multibillion-dollar cybersecurity industry as we’ve known it is essentially overdue to the unrelenting, AI-boosted waves of hacks, breaches, and attack
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AI has made it easier for both private and state actors to break into computer systems by helping them detect and exploit vulnerabilities simultaneously, leading to a wave of interconnected breaches across the tech industry. According to a cybersecurity expert interviewed, adversaries can now automate most of the steps needed to compromise targets, from research through deployment, rather than doing this work manually ahead of time. This capability represents the beginning of how AI is changing cybersecurity, and experts describe the current period as a "dark age" where the industry struggles to adapt to the new threat landscape. The situation has left security professionals exhausted, with major breaches and attacks occurring continuously throughout the industry.
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