{"id":225292,"date":"2026-06-03T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T16:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/dont-panic-ai-reality-checks-dominate-major-cybersecurity-conference\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T16:05:12","slug":"dont-panic-ai-reality-checks-dominate-major-cybersecurity-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/dont-panic-ai-reality-checks-dominate-major-cybersecurity-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Don\u2019t panic\u2019: AI reality checks dominate major cybersecurity conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Don\u2019t panic\u2019: AI reality checks dominate major cybersecurity conference<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.cybersecuritydive.com\/news\/ai-cybersecurity-hype-reality-check-gartner\/821867\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-03 12:02:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.cybersecuritydive.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

One of the most important jobs for CISOs in the AI era is to stay calm and carefully assess their organizations\u2019 risk exposure, experts said this week at the annual Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit in National Harbor, Md.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t panic,\u201d Katell Thielemann, a VP analyst at Gartner, said during a talk on Tuesday about AI\u2019s impact on the security of cyber-physical systems such as industrial control equipment.
\n\u201cYes, things are changing fast,\u201d Thielemann said, \u201cbut there are some low-hanging fruit\u201d that CISOs can tackle, such as disconnecting critical devices from the internet and monitoring remote access to the remaining infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The recent debuts of Anthropic\u2019s Claude Mythos and OpenAI\u2019s Daybreak, two powerful new AI models that can find software vulnerabilities much more quickly than previous tools, have rattled cybersecurity leaders, who have sought help countering the resulting risks. Technology vendors and consultants have rushed to meet that demand for help, in some cases with unnecessary or counterproductive advice and products. At Gartner\u2019s conference, experts urged CISOs and other security executives to focus on the basics rather than the hype.
\n\u201cWhat does Mythos or Daybreak change? Velocity and volume,\u201d Dennis Xu, a VP analyst at Gartner, said during a session on Tuesday. Attackers are \u201ccoming at us much faster, and in the next 12 months [they will attack at] a much higher volume.\u201d
\nStill, Xu said, CISOs should remember two things: \u201cDon\u2019t panic\u201d and \u201ccommunicate.\u201d
\n\u201cYou need to communicate \u2026 to the executive team [and] to the board that we are fighting a different game now,\u201d he said, adding that security executives shouldn\u2019t be afraid to use the new threat environment as an opportunity to demand larger budgets.
\nBut despite the increased velocity and volume, Xu said, businesses\u2019 defensive priorities should remain largely the same, with a focus on managing asset exposure and prioritizing patch deployment to the most important systems.
\nAt one point, Xu asked audience members how many of them had defined their businesses\u2019 \u201cminimum viable operations,\u201d the core systems and processes without which they couldn\u2019t function. When few hands went up, Xu said companies should focus on that task.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want you to spend six months doing it, but that\u2019s a thing I would have,\u201d he said, \u201cif for no other reason than it serves as a common language [where] we can all agree and understand what\u2019s important, and then stakeholders can begin to prioritize cybersecurity resilience decisions in the important places.\u201d
\nAI hype meets reality
\nBusiness leaders must be cognizant of how effectively they\u2019re using AI, as well as what effects the technology is and isn\u2019t yet having, Gartner analysts said during talks throughout the conference.
\nOpenAI, Anthropic and other AI firms are pushing businesses to buy expensive subscriptions for tools that they promise will revolutionize companies\u2019 complex, time-consuming practices. But that rhetoric has often failed to match the reality, as companies discover that AI tools burn through tokens without producing significant results.
\nSecurity leaders \u201cfeel underrepresented and under-resourced,\u201d said Bart Willemsen, a Gartner VP analyst, \u201cbecause our money is actually going away to, dare I say, [generative] AI platforms that used to be somewhat almost free, then they started paying per user per month \u2026 [and] then it was per token.\u201d
\n\u201cAre we draining our budgets on things we can do better [with humans]?\u201d Willemsen asked. \u201cI do firmly believe we are.\u201d
\nCompanies should be wary of replacing experienced workers with AI models, he added, because if the AI tools prove deficient, recruiting those workers back or finding new people to replace them won\u2019t be easy.
\n\u201cFor those of you who are thinking, \u2018Well, AI will make it so that I can do whatever I want with less people,\u2019 let me tell you, the moment you get rid of them, you are not getting them back,\u201d he said.
\nEmphasizing human skills
\nAnother session also featured a warning about the follies of neglecting workforce development in the AI era.
\n\u201cWe are facing crushing pressure from the C-suite and the board to showcase the value in AI investments,\u201d said Alex Michaels, a director analyst at Gartner. \u201cYears of hype further accelerate this urgency. Yet AI ambitions are met by a talent bench that is not prepared for widespread rapid AI adoption.\u201d
\nMichaels was speaking in the context of the security operations center (SOC), a domain that business leaders have been keen to automate with AI but one that Michaels said required continual investment in human skill sets. Yet as AI takes on more SOC tasks, Michaels warned, there will be less imperative to keep human workers trained on important skills, potentially jeopardizing institutional knowledge.
\n\u201cEven if we\u2019re successful in implementing AI automation at scale,\u201d Michaels said, \u201cwe risk eroding the potential of our future generation of SOC talent.\u201d
\nReality check on AI and industrial control systems
\nThielemann, whose session focused on cyber-physical systems, said critical infrastructure operators should focus on cyber hygiene basics such as network segmentation and access control rather than stressing out about a crippling AI-powered cyberattack that might not arrive for years.
\n\u201cWe know AI is knocking at the door,\u201d she said. \u201cTime will tell, but we haven’t seen sort of this nightmare scenario happening yet.\u201d
\nAnthropic has been inviting selected equipment vendors and critical infrastructure operators into its Claude Mythos preview program, Project Glasswing, but so far, Thielemann noted, none of the companies that make industrial control systems have disclosed their participation.
\n\u201cIf CPS-specific vendors are part of Mythos, they\u2019re not piping up,\u201d she said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen anything from the Siemens, from the Rockwells, and [from] the Honeywells.\u201d
\n\u201cUntil we start seeing more information,\u201d she added, \u201cplease don’t fall for the \u2018Mythos in manufacturing, we\u2019re all going to blow up\u2019 [rhetoric], which I see quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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