Digital Turbine's Vivek Menon on AI Acceleration vs Attack Expansion

The security industry's obsession with cutting-edge threats often overshadows a more pressing reality: the vast majority of organizations are still mastering basic AI implementation. Vivek Menon, CISO & Head of Data at Digital Turbine, brings his insights from the RSA expo floor to share why the agentic AI security rush may be premature, while highlighting the genuine opportunities AI presents for resource-constrained security teams.

Vivek shares with David how smaller organizations can leverage AI automation to achieve enterprise-level security capabilities without corresponding budget increases. His balanced approach to AI security threats demonstrates why defenders maintain strategic advantages over attackers, despite the expanded attack surface that dominates industry discussions.

 

Topics discussed:

• Why the agentic AI security market represents a classic "horse before the cart" scenario, with vendors solving problems for the 1% of enterprises building agents while 99% are still evaluating basic AI adoption.
• How the rush toward AI agents is forcing long-overdue conversations about non-human identity management, which lacks pace and scale in implementation.
• The strategic advantage defenders maintain in AI-powered security conflicts, leveraging time-based preparation capabilities while attackers face immediate success requirements with limited development windows.
• The dual nature of AI security impact, balancing genuine attack surface expansion against significantly enhanced defensive capabilities.
• Distinguishing between legitimate security innovation and buzzword-driven marketing, focusing on practical implementation readiness over theoretical capability demonstrations.
• How programmatic advertising technology companies navigate unique security challenges while maintaining operational efficiency in highly automated, data-driven business environments.

 

Key Takeaways: 

• Evaluate vendor AI solutions by asking what percentage of your industry actually uses the underlying technology before investing in security tools for emerging threats.
• Prioritize non-human identity management initiatives now, as the shift toward AI agents will expose existing gaps in identity governance at scale.
• Leverage AI automation to achieve enterprise-level security capabilities without proportional budget increases, especially for resource-constrained organizations.
• Adopt AI as a defensive accelerator rather than viewing it primarily as an attack surface expansion problem.
• Invest time in comprehensive threat protection strategies, capitalizing on defenders' advantage over attackers who must succeed immediately.
• Assess your organization's AI maturity before implementing agentic AI security solutions, ensuring you're solving actual rather than theoretical problems.
• Focus security budgets on mainstream technology threats affecting 99% of enterprises rather than cutting-edge solutions for the 1%.

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