RSAC: AI split the battlefield
RSAC opened with a blunt message: generative AI is now powering both highly automated attacks and the defenders trying to stop them, and the industry warned of risk escalation toward “Category 5” incidents. The UK Cyber Monitoring Centre is even planning U.S. expansion amid those concerns — signaling increased monitoring and a faster threat environment. (securityboulevard.com) (computerweekly.com)
RSAC 2026 opened at San Francisco’s Moscone Center with upwards of 40,000 security professionals in attendance, marking the conference’s 35th year and emphasizing AI as the dominant theme. (securityboulevard.com) SANS Institute’s annual “Five Most Dangerous New Attack Techniques” session reported that, for the first time in its decade‑long run, AI is embedded in every one of this year’s top five attack vectors. (redefiningcybersecuritypodcast.com) Speakers at RSAC highlighted machine‑scale social engineering and agentic tooling as enablers of faster, automated campaigns that defenders must match with automation, a framing repeated across vendor keynotes and panel sessions. (rsaconference.com) The UK’s Cyber Monitoring Centre, launched in February 2025 to score incidents on a 0–5 economic‑impact scale, announced plans to open a U.S. counterpart after one year of operation to provide cross‑Atlantic incident monitoring and impact assessment. (infosecurity-magazine.com) Computer Weekly and Infosecurity flagged the CMC’s move amid warnings that nation‑scale campaigns (analysts cite groups like Volt Typhoon as examples) could qualify as “Category 5” events if realized, prompting calls for faster public‑private incident visibility. (computerweekly.com)
