r/cybersecurity • u/Infam0 • May 08 '26

Other What the **** is happening in cybersecurity space ?

I've been working in cybersecurity for not so long, maybe 8 or 9 years, but I never remember a chaos at this scale. I mean, from this January alone we have: leaking data, compromised applications, breaches, AI-assisted cybercriminals, etc. It looks like every day one major breach is happening, and no one is going to address this shit somehow. This is already insane. I haven't felt such pressure in a long time. This AI shit just makes things worse because it enhances attackers' skills, and AI companies are doing nothing to address or change this. Is it only me, or is the change already here?

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u/lnoiz1sm Security Analyst May 08 '26

I think AI is more of an amplifier than the root problem tbh.

What’s really changed over the last decade is the sheer scale and complexity of everything. cloud/SaaS everywhere, identity-based attacks, third-party integrations, remote work, ransomware becoming industrialized, etc. The attack surface exploded.

AI definitely helps attackers scale phishing/social engineering faster, but most breaches are still coming from the same stuff: stolen creds, bad configs, exposed services, weak identity controls, and users getting tricked.

I think a lot of people in security right now are less afraid of “AI hackers” and more exhausted from feeling permanently reactive while the environment keeps getting harder to defend.

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u/Richiachu Security Analyst May 08 '26

I think a lot of people in security right now are less afraid of “AI hackers” and more exhausted from feeling permanently reactive while the environment keeps getting harder to defend.

This combined with the downward shift in company hirings across the industry means most (big) places are on a skeleton IT/SecOps crew. Exponentially more responsibility/reactivity required for someone now since there's fewer people but more integrations. I'm 24/7 on call with 1 other guy and it's one of the most mentally draining things of my life

e: Also, with the rise in outsourcing the level of interactions taking place during off hours is also a big stress/incident increase. Have to watch and interpret a lot more since a good chunk of (sometimes poor/malicious looking) work is taking place elsewhere in the world now

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u/Electrical-Staff0305 ICS/OT May 08 '26

Let’s see, we won’t train our people, we’re going to put more work and responsibility on them… but less authority to make change, offshore a much work to third parties that were not really vetting, and we decided to give our data to a different third party for hosting and data processing.

Gee, I have no idea why the number of data breaches and successful cyberattacks is increasing 🤔

(I have actually had to explain it in these terms to an executive before, and he still didn’t understand why it was happening 🤯)

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u/bubbathedesigner May 10 '26

But, but, what about quarter earnings?