What Cyber Security Professionals “Fear”
August 21, 2025
This blog post is the work of an authentic dinobaby. Sorry. No smart software can help this reptilian thinker.
My colleague Robert David Steele (now deceased) loved to attend Black Hat. He regaled me with the changing demographics of the conference, the reaction to his often excitement-inducing presentations, and the interesting potential “resources” he identified. I was content to stay in my underground office in rural Kentucky and avoid the hacking and posturing.
I still keep up (sort of but not too enthusiastically) with Black Hat events by reading articles like “Black Hat 2025: What Keeps Cyber Experts Up at Night?” The write up explains that:
“Machines move faster than humans.”
Okay, that makes sense. The write up then points out:
“Tools like generative AI are fueling faster, more convincing phishing and social engineering campaigns.”
I concluded that cyber security professionals fear fast computers and smart software. When these two things are combined, the write up states:
The speed of AI innovation is stretching security management to its limits.
My conclusion is that the wide availability of smart software is the big “fear.”
I interpret the information in the write up from a slightly different angle. Let me explain.
First, cyber security companies have to make money to stay in business. I could name one Russian outfit that gets state support, but I don’t want to create waves. Let’s go with money is the driver of cyber security. In order to make money, the firms have to come up with fancy ways of explaining DNS analysis, some fancy math, or yet another spin on the Maltego graph software. I understand.
Second, cyber security companies are by definition reactive. So far the integration of smart software into the policeware and intelware systems I track adds some workflow enhancements; for example, grouping information and in some cases generating a brief paragraph, thus saving time. Proactive perimeter defense systems and cyber methods designed to spot insider attacks are in what I call “sort of helpful” mode. These systems can easily overwhelm the person monitoring the data signals. Firms respond by popping up a level with another layer of abstraction. Those using the systems are busy, of course, and it is not clear if more work gets done or if time is bled off to do busy-work. Cyber security firms, therefore, are usually not in proactive mode except for marketing.
Third, cyber security firms are consolidating. I think about outfits like Pala Alto or the private equity roll ups. The result is that bureaucratic friction is added to the technology development these firms must do. Just figuring out how to snag data from the latest and greatest Dark Web secret forum and actually getting access to a Private Channel on Telegram disseminating content that is illegal in many jurisdictions takes time. With smart software, bad actors can experiment. The self-appointed gatekeepers do little to filter these malware activities because some bad actors are customers of the gatekeepers. (No, I won’t name firms. I don’t want to talk to lawyers or inflamed cyber security firms’ leadership.) My point is that consolidation creates bureaucratic work. That activity puts the foot on the fast moving cyber firm’s brakes. Reaction time slows.
What does this mean?
I think the number one fear for cyber security professionals may be the awareness that bad actors with zero bureaucratic, technical, or financial limits can use AI to make old wine new again. Recently a major international law enforcement organization announced the shutdown of particular stealer software. Unfortunately that stealer is currently being disseminated via Web search systems with live links to the Telegram-centric vendor pumping the malware into thousands of unsuspecting Telegram users each month.
What happens when that “old school” stealer is given some new capabilities by one of the smart software tools? The answer is, “Cyber security firms may have to hype their capabilities to an even greater degree than they now do. Behind the scenes, the stage is now set for developer burn out and churn.
The fear, then, is a nagging sense that bad guys may be getting a tool kit to punch holes in what looks like a slam dunk business. I am probably wrong because I am a dinobaby. I don’t go to many conferences. I don’t go to sales meetings. I don’t meet with private equity people. I just look at how AI makes asymmetric cyber warfare into a tough game. One should not take a squirt gun to a shoot out with a bad actor working without bureaucratic and financial restraints armed with an AI system.
Stephen E Arnold, August 21, 2025
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