We spent the 2026 Black Hat Cybersecurity Conference doing something a little different at our booth. Instead of talking all product, we took time to ask the security pros who stopped by to share their unfiltered hot takes on the state of cybersecurity. No edits, no PR polishing — just what's actually on their minds.
A lot of people were eager to share their opinions. Here's what some of them had to say:
"All the AI products lack proper deterministic handcuffs, and it's a huge oversight."
- Boris Betancourt, Sr. Red Team Operator, Evernorth Health Services
"Agentic AI as a differentiator isn't much of a differentiator now."
- Ben Catrett, Client Executive, EchoStor
"While businesses are focused on the variety of attack surfaces, the general public still ignores the extent of how their home networks and devices provide easy fodder for malicious cyber actors to test capabilities."
- John Miner, Project Lead, Two Six Technologies
"DNS should be the 1st line of defense!"
- Eddie Menjivar @eMenjivar, Senior Security Engineer, Exclusive Networks
"Every cybersecurity platform utilizes the same UI/UX, and it is exhausting to look at."
- Samuel Newfield, IS Security Engineer, Ochsner Health
"Ungoverned internal AI usage is more detrimental than external AI threats."
- Kevin Granger, Policy Manager, LOGC2
"Dynamic workflows with cited sources will change your life."
- Greg Heffner, Lead Security Analyst, Grainger
"Pie charts to represent security risk annoy me."
- Matt Cavanaugh, Senior Manager, Vulnerability Management, Marriott International
"AI spending will not match revenue generated."
- Benjamin Nicholson, Global Practice Leader - Prisma Cloud, Palo Alto Networks
"Put guardrails on AI."
- Michael Goldman, Principal Engineer, Anduril
"SOC AI is just SOAR and Google search rebranded."
- Isaac Soibelman, Sr. Manager Incident Response & Security Operations, B&H Photo-Video
"The adoption of AI is moving at a breakneck pace, but the governance and controls to make it secure aren't. Industries and regulators would be wise to work together to close the current gaps."
- TJ Modlin, Senior Manager Technology Strategy and Delivery, TECO Energy
"In 10 years, only 20 security vendors will exist."
- Zachary Dworak, Secure Access & Identity, IBM
Do you agree? Disagree? Have your own hot take? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
