The accelerating speed of AI-driven attacks is exposing an AI security skills gap that many security teams are only beginning to address. Defenders can’t hire their way out of that speed differential as attackers continue to outpace traditional security operations.

Black Hat USA opened with security teams grappling with frontier AI models that continue to compress the time between compromise and full exploitation. Defenders face a growing challenge that extends beyond simply keeping pace with faster attacks, according to Krista Case (pictured, left), principal analyst and practice lead for cyber resilience and security at theCUBE Research.

“These frontier AI models … are really accelerating the speed and the scale that attackers can move at, which is compressing the window for response for our defenders,” Case said. “One of the big things that defenders need … is context.”

Case and co-host Jon Oltsik (right), analyst in residence at theCUBE Research, provided a day one keynote analysis at Black Hat USA, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed cyber resilience, threat intelligence and the new security skill sets AI adoption demands. (* Disclosure below.)

Closing the AI security skills gap

The gap between attackers’ speed and defenders’ ability to respond is widening, according to Oltsik. The Mandiant M-Trends 2026 report found that the median interval between an initial access event and the handoff to a secondary threat group had fallen from more than eight hours in 2022 to just 22 seconds in 2025. That pace is beyond what a human-only security operations center can match.

“Cyber resilience is the intersection point between technology and the business,” Oltsik said. “Before we have resilience, we have to understand: What are our business processes? What’s important to the business, and who are the constituents that need to make that decision?”

The skills gap is already reshaping staffing. Organizations will need AI penetration testers to stress-test agentic applications and AI governance specialists to track changing regulations and governance guardrails, according to Oltsik. Building effective agentic AI oversight also requires the right mix of people, process and technology, he added. Case noted that AI’s value comes from strengthening human decision-making, not eliminating it.

“The human still needs to be in the loop,” she said. “Combined, human plus AI, we can do more than we could do with just AI or just the human.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Black Hat USA:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Black Hat USA. Sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE