Thank you to everyone who reached out. Unfortunately my job hunt has to be paused due to my noncompete. I will definitely let everyone know when I’m able to resume looking. 💔
I want to share a quick thought for people in cyber security. This will be my longest tweet ever.
I’ve spoken to many lately who are having an existential crisis from the constant posts about “the end of cybersecurity jobs.”
Yes, things are changing quickly. This is a significant moment for the tech industry. Change can be uncomfortable. But we’ve seen cycles like this before.
• When GitHub and open source took off, people said software engineers would disappear because code was free.
• When AWS and cloud computing emerged, people said infrastructure jobs would vanish.
• When fuzzing and SAST tools improved, people said vulnerability research would disappear.
• Virtualization would eliminate infrastructure jobs.
• Mobile computing was going to end desktop dev.
• Exploit mitigations would end exploitability. It didn't.
Each time automation improved, the amount of software grew faster than the automation. It does feel "different" this time as it's explosive.
Some roles will shrink:
• repetitive pentesting
• basic vulnerability scanning
• tier-1 SOC monitoring
But other areas are expanding rapidly:
• AI system security
• supply chain security
• identity architecture
• autonomous agent security
• critical infrastructure protection
Historically, every time we eliminate one class of bugs, new classes emerge. Right now people are vibe-coding entire systems, giving AI access to their machines, crossing trust boundaries, and deploying autonomous agents with excessive permissions. The legal and regulatory world is nowhere close to ready.
There will absolutely be new failure modes. Humans are amazing and always adapt, finding new ways to do things.
The worst thing you can do right now is fall into a doom loop.
...and I’ll be honest, I too have felt the "psychological paralysis" a few times thinking, “Is this time different?” It's especially impactful when it comes from someone I respect in the community. There are certainly unknowns, in an industry where we've become accustomed to predictability.
But... the majority of those reactions are usually driven by social media, not reality. Platforms like X reward engagement, and sensational doom posts spread faster than measured thinking.
If you see something like:
“Holy #$%^! Opus 66.6 just found every bug in Chrome and replaced 50 startups!”
…mute it and move on.
Instead:
Stay curious.
Learn the new technology.
Adapt your skillsets.
Build things.
We’ll get through this transition the same way we always have. If I'm wrong then Sam Altman better be right about UBI! :) I'm sure that if this tweet gets any engagement that I'll get some heat for it, but a good friend of mine reminds me often to focus on what you have control over. I'll revisit this tweet at DEF CON 40!
@techspence Only badly scoped ones or orgs that take security seriously and have remediated from the frequent engagements they've had. Sometimes it makes you question your abilities. Sometimes with all the extra digging, you get a cool finding that a vuln scanner didn't see.
It's not *always* about Windows--macOS and Linux #EDRs need attention, too! In our latest blog, @kyleavery explains more about the telemetry sources for these under-discussed #endpoint products>
https://t.co/fxA5s7vKUH
Today we are releasing GraphRunner, a post-exploitation toolset for M365 and Entra ID accounts that myself and @424f424f have been building for the last few months.
Read the blog post here: https://t.co/fWKFcLgld5
Code is here: https://t.co/yDhdkhbO7q
Hey all!! We are running yet another Pay What You Can for SOC Core Skills next week!
Yes, $0 is an option.
Let's break some gates down and get more cool people in the industry.
https://t.co/DloQ3Tqdwy
Please RT:
https://t.co/5PXvxzWoob is worrisome. Early indications are pre-auth wormable RCE. Think MS08-067, MS17-010 / EternalBlue. Patch and block inbound 445/tcp.
https://t.co/AYO5ayhnl6 is universal local privesc. These happen. Patch and monitor for post-ex actions.