Another Special Episode this week! Christina and Rory review the state of the cybersecurity M&A landscape in 2026, and discuss how AI is causing a significant shift in strategic positioning, driven by a mixture of time-to-market desire, infrastructure build-outs, and a continuing approach by major telecommunications companies to spin-out their security services divisions.

Fortinet Acquires AI Security Company Virtue AI

Genesis PE Acquires SK Shieldus Security Unit

Bank of America Acquires UK-based MDSec

NEWS

Tech layoffs in 2026 – cybersecurity vendors & service providers

Layoffs.fyi

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In this week's episode, Christina are Rory are joined by Russ Bentley, EVP Product Management at ZeroFox to discuss the alarming ease with which AI can now be used to create ultra-realistic and convincing impersonations and the resulting challenges for executive protection. Some great points by Russ, including the need for a return to foundational social engineering awareness. Recommendations: focus on the "basic tells" that are more resistant to AI manipulation - such as questioning the context and character of the contact. Is the topic expected? Is there artificial urgency? Is it out of character for that individual to reach out in this way? 

NEWS

Black Hat Roundup - Rory and Christina select their picks of new and interesting announcements!

IBM Partners with OpenAI to Accelerate Secure AI Deployment for Enterprises Across Core Operations

AI agent hacks gym to get its user a spot in Pilates class

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SPECIAL EPISODE: this week, Christina & Rory take the plunge and debate the merits of AI and AI Agents in cybersecurity strategy. What are the pros & cons? How can AI benefit those managing cyber defence vs. the cyber criminals, nation state actors and other attackers pushing on the offensive side? It's often been called an "arms race", so where will it end - if it can? What are the lessons that cybersecurity professionals should bear in mind, and what role will humans have in the rapidly developing security industry?

CALL FOR FEEDBACK: we'd love to hear your thoughts! Send us an email to your choice of address below.

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In this week's episode, Jim LaRoe, CEO of Symphion, discusses the critical security risks associated with printers and IoT devices, which he argues are the most overlooked endpoints in the modern AI-enabled threat landscape. LaRoe emphasizes that while printers are often treated as "dumb appliances," they have evolved into sophisticated servers that reside inside the organizational network. Printers typically represent 20% of all network endpoints, yet they frequently exist in a "print silo" outside the visibility and control of IT and security teams.

NEWS

Microsoft launches its first cybersecurity model, plus a new agentic cybersecurity system

C-Suites Pivot from AI Adoption to Unlocking Value as Escalating Token Costs Trigger Fiscal Scrutiny

Cyera to acquire Oasis Security in reported $1B deal

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Paul Mote, VP Solutions Architect at Synack, chats with Christina & Rory about how artificial intelligence is forcing a radical shift in offensive security and vulnerability management, including why the increasing number of autonomous attacks requires much more robust autonomous defenses. The solution? Organizations must move toward continuous automated patching or blocking to avoid falling hopelessly behind in an expedited attack sequence...

NEWS

Hugging Face experiences cyberattack carried out end-to-end by agentic AI

Sophos releases its “State of Ransomware 2026” report

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This week we follow-up on a story from last week's episode about the rise of Agentic Threat Actors (ATAs). Christina & Rory chat with Michael Clark, Senior Director of Threat Research at Sysdig about their discovery of JADEPUFFER, an ATA considered to be the first instance of agentic ransomware - an attack where a Large Language Model (LLM) is on the other end of the connection rather than a human operator. By exploiting the Langflow platform, the agent then autonomously attempted to perform automated database extortion against MySQL instances. But did it achieve its objectives?

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In this week's episode, Christina & Rory talk with guest Heath Renfrow, co-founder of breach recovery specialist Fenix24. Warning: It's a sobering look at the "cleanup" side of cybersecurity, emphasizing that most organizations are fundamentally unprepared for the complexity of full system restoration after a major attack. From the failure of backups and the hidden cost of business interruption, the discussion concludes the need for resiliency to be the top security control in every organization.

NEWS

JADEPUFFER: Agentic ransomware for automated database extortion

Startup sues Palo Alto Networks' Koi Security, saying an AI-hallucinated report falsely linked it to Chinese espionage

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In this week's episode, guest Jayesh Kamat, Global Competency Leader in Application Security at IBM, chats with Christina about the profound impact of AI frontier models on cybersecurity and the necessity of shifting toward an "AI-native" security posture. 

With machines now generating code at an exponential rate through agents like "IBM Bob," traditional application security (AppSec) methods are no longer sufficient. Kamat advocates for AI-native security, which integrates protection directly into the development lifecycle:

Ultimately, Kamat views this as a "moment under the sun" for application security, which has shifted from a neglected back-office function to a primary focus of enterprise strategy

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In this week's show, Brandon Dobrec, VP of Product at SecurityScorecard, chats with Christina & Rory about the escalating challenges of supply chain security and why traditional risk management is failing in the face of modern complexity.

NEWS

SailPoint to Acquire Entro in Reported $200 Million Deal

“FortiBleed”: Sweeping Credential-Harvesting Heist Compromises 30K+ Fortinet Devices

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It's another special episode this week! 

Hosts Christina Richmond and Rory Duncan examine the evolution of the identity market from a back-office IT function to a central pillar of modern business risk management. The discussion traces the shift from simple human credential management to a complex landscape dominated by non-human identities (NHIs), such as service accounts, APIs, and emerging AI agents.

Why is this such a risk? Attackers are now much more likely to "log in" rather than "hack in," and organisations must move toward a model of accountability and zero standing privileges to secure their digital perimeters.

Which vendors and service providers should you consider? Establish players include IBM/HashiCorp, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Sailpoint, Securonix, Sphere Technology Solutions and others. Newer and emerging firms include Glide Security, Token Security, Silverfort, SingulrAI and more!

What do we recommend? The need for identity hygiene and the integration of behavioural detection to manage the exponential growth of autonomous machine identities.

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