AI Narrows the Cyber Gap Between Attackers and Defenders

Advances in scalable artificial intelligence and agentic technologies are creating a long-awaited shift in the defender-offender dynamic. With autonomy and agentic capabilities entering production, CISOs may soon deploy 100,000 autonomous agents instead of hiring more staff, said Dave DeWalt, CEO of NightDragon.

See Also: How Generative AI Enables Solo Cybercriminals

But cybersecurity has significantly deteriorated over the past decade. In 2013, many systems relied on air-gapped networks and legacy infrastructure – what DeWalt called “security by obscurity.” But the rapid shift to cloud environments and the proliferation of IoT devices have introduced unprecedented complexity and vulnerability.

“Vulnerabilities create exploits. Exploits create opportunities for attackers,” DeWalt said. “What I’ve been calling the perfect cyber storm for 20 years has now become a huge hurricane – it’s a big storm and a lot worse than it’s ever been.”

In this video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSAC Conference 2025, DeWalt also discussed:

• Federal leaders’ positive cybersecurity outreach despite administrative transitions;
• Platformization versus best-of-breed solutions amid AI’s rise;
• Rising investment in quantum and hybrid GPU-QPU architectures.

A four-time CEO, DeWalt has led some of the world’s most influential companies toward success over the past 25 years, including FireEye, McAfee and Documentum. He has created more than $20 billion in shareholder value and drove some of the largest acquisition deals and initial public offerings in history.