RSAC 2026 Takeaways: Agentic AI, Faster Threats and a Return to Security Basics
Summary
A field guide to RSAC 2026 argues that AI is reshaping security work and creating new risks around agents and non-human identities, while faster attacks make automation urgent and core security fundamentals remain essential.
Key points
- The article cites Mandiant M-Trends 2026, reporting that the time from initial access to handoff to secondary threat groups fell from eight hours in 2022 to 22 seconds in 2025.
- It argues that AI agents acting on enterprise systems introduce security challenges around unpredictable behavior, broad permissions, governance, and observability.
- As machine, API, and agent identities proliferate, the article emphasizes ownership, accountability, and monitoring behavior in context.
- The author expects security roles to shift toward supervising AI systems and applying human judgment to high-stakes decisions.
- The article says organizations are returning to fundamentals such as asset visibility, identity hygiene, access reviews, and patching, with AI potentially helping teams do this at scale.
- For security builders, it highlights demand for specific domain expertise and end-to-end outcomes, while warning that easily copied software features offer weaker differentiation.
Article Details
- Topic
- Cybersecurity trends and takeaways from RSA Conference 2026, including agentic AI security, changing cyber roles, startup funding, and security fundamentals.
People
Darwin SalazarReported on security leaders increasingly choosing to build in some categories after RSAC and BSidesSF 2026.Jackie BowHead of Detection & Response at Anthropic; commented on the operational burden of building and maintaining security products.Laurent HausermannAuthor of the article and field notes from RSA Conference 2026.Phil VenablesFormer CISO of Goldman Sachs; described his outlook on the changing threat environment.Ross HaleliukShared observations about practical AI security concerns and security teams returning to fundamentals.
Vendors
Anthropicagentic development has dramatically lowered the barrier. A BSidesSF panel with security leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Perplexity, and Cursor made the nuances clear: the gap between MVP and production-ready isCisco& Response — where the goal is no longer to detect malware but to trace the decision logic of AI agents. Cisco has proposed Defense Claw, an open-source framework for automated inventory and control of AI agents. WizCrowdStrikeThe major players are converging on the same response. CrowdStrike is evolving the EDR concept toward AIDR — AI Detection & Response — where the goal is no longer to detect malware but to trace the decision logic of AICursorlowered the barrier. A BSidesSF panel with security leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Perplexity, and Cursor made the nuances clear: the gap between MVP and production-ready is still messy, shipping is only theMicrosoftautomated inventory and control of AI agents. Wiz launched a new AI application protection platform. Microsoft introduced a predictive AI security platform that learns continuously (and they are pitching “doubleOpenAIdevelopment has dramatically lowered the barrier. A BSidesSF panel with security leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Perplexity, and Cursor made the nuances clear: the gap between MVP and production-ready is still messy,Perplexityhas dramatically lowered the barrier. A BSidesSF panel with security leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Perplexity, and Cursor made the nuances clear: the gap between MVP and production-ready is still messy, shippingWizhas proposed Defense Claw, an open-source framework for automated inventory and control of AI agents. Wiz launched a new AI application protection platform. Microsoft introduced a predictive AI security platform
Products
Defense Clawgoal is no longer to detect malware but to trace the decision logic of AI agents. Cisco has proposed Defense Claw, an open-source framework for automated inventory and control of AI agents. Wiz launched a new AIGeordiehad 10 finalists out of 200+ candidates, and the majority focused on agentic AI governance. The winner, Geordie, delivered a global governance platform that applies least-privilege policies to AI agents, withGlide Identitythat Identity is always a source of Innovation: Token (intent-based identity management) and Glide Identity (SIM-based passwordless authentication). [RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox 2026]TokenTwo finalists at the RSA Innovation Sandbox illustrate that Identity is always a source of Innovation: Token (intent-based identity management) and Glide Identity (SIM-based passwordless authentication). [RSA Conference