Chief security officers hoping to up their game might attend a tech security conference. And they might go home empty-handed — except for a demo on how to hack an ATM machine. Conversations around security usually focus on the methodology of hackers, said Tom Kemp (pictured), chief executive officer and co-founder of Centrify Corp.

“That’s great for a hacker, but that doesn’t really help business people,” Kemp said.

Of course, it’s valuable intel for chief security officers and chief information officers. But keeping abreast of cybercriminals’ repertoire can leave them with little time to build their organizations’ security policies.

“There’s really a dearth of business-level discussions with C-level people discussing the issues around security,” Kemp said.

Hackers’ tricks are constantly changing, as are the injuries they inflict on targets, Kemp told John Furrier (@furrier), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during a conversation at theCUBE’s Palo Alto studio in California. They are not just stealing sensitive data anymore. “Now it’s an impact on your brand,” Kemp said.

Facebook has taken heat from the U.S. Senate for posting $100,000 in campaign ads allegedly from the Russian government. It is illegal for foreign bodies to meddle in American campaigns. Facebook blamed the intrusions on failure to detect inauthentic accounts.

Creative infiltrators like the Russian agents in this case pose a new class of threat. Cybercriminals can deliver damaging blows to a company’s reputation.

AI and business heads better together

Mutating threat types naturally require an evolution in security protection technology, according to Kemp. “The solutions that we had before are being completely disrupted.” For one, new security methods must be fully cloud-compatible, Kemp stated.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are the most promising trends in advanced threat detection. “I really think that there does need to be more of an open-sourcing of knowledge and information to help fine-tune the machine learning that’s needed and required to prevent these type of breeches,” Kemp said.

To that end, Centrify recently organized CyberConnect 2017 in New York City. The conference brought together CSOs from government and corporations to pool advice on fighting threats. Keith Alexander, former director of the National Security Agency, spoke at the event.

The CyberConnect event spotlighted how the government and enterprises are starting to coordinate on cybersecurity initiatives. “The real counterpoint, as the general [Alexander] pointed out, is between civil liberties and privacy,” Furrier said during the event. “Do you want subway attacks and have your email be clean? Or do you want no subway attacks and have people read your email?”

Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-host of theCUBE, summed up cybersecurity’s current state during CyberConnect: “The bottom line is there is no silver bullet for security. It’s a portfolio of approaches and practices and education and unconventional processes that you have to apply.”

TheCUBE was there extracting the signal from the noise — check out our coverage here.

Watch the complete video interview with Tom Kemp below:

Photo: SiliconANGLE