Black Hat 2026 Kickoff – BH26 #1
The Perfect Storm: When AI Writes the Code and Sharpens the Attacks – Idan Plotnik – BH26 #1
Idan is a serial entrepreneur and product strategist, bringing to Apiiro nearly 20 years of experience in cybersecurity. Previously, Idan was Director of Engineering at Microsoft following the acquisition of Aorato where he served as the founder and CEO.
How AI Is Reshaping What’s Possible for Leaders of The Security Program – Greg Baker – BH26 #1
Greg Baker is a cybersecurity entrepreneur and the Co-Founder and CEO of Balance Theory. He spent the first decade of his career supporting the U.S. intelligence community before founding Decision Lab, a cybersecurity company acquired by Optiv. Following the acquisition, Greg held senior leadership roles at Optiv, helping some of the world’s largest enterprises navigate cybersecurity strategy, transformation, and technology investment.
He is now building Balance Theory to fundamentally change how security leaders understand their programs, navigate the market, and take action.
Why Agentic AI Security Requires a Defense-In-Depth Strategy – Kaushik Shanadi – BH26 #1
Kaushik Shanadi is Co-Founder and CTO of Helmet Security, where he is building scalable, agent-native security protocols for the next generation of AI systems. A security engineer with deep experience across startups and enterprise environments, he has spent his career designing secure, high-performance infrastructure and solving complex cybersecurity challenges. Prior to founding Helmet, Kaushik served as Chief Architect at Conceal, where he led the development of advanced security technologies. He is based in the Washington, D.C. area and holds a B.S. degree from the University of Florida.
The Shift to Machine-Led Security: What’s Next for Cyber Defense – Galina Antova – BH26 #1
Galina Antova is a serial cybersecurity entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of Kai, an agentic AI company built to replace fragmented security tools with autonomous, end-to-end defense. Previously, she co-founded Claroty, a multi-billion dollar pre-IPO cyber-physical security company. Prior to that, she led Industrial Security Services at Siemens and was a technical leader at IBM’s Software Group. Galina holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from York University and an MBA from IMD, Switzerland.
Outpacing the Adversary with AI Threat Defense – John Hultquist – BH26 #1
John Hultquist is Chief Analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group, having come to Google through its acquisition of Mandiant. John has over 25 years of experience in intelligence and special operations, principally covering emerging threats in cyber espionage. His team found and first publicly exposed the Russian threat actor best known as Sandworm. John is the founder of CYBERWARCON and SLEUTHCON, and he teaches at Johns Hopkins University. He is also a veteran of the US Army.
Optiv: The One Partner to Advise, Deploy and Operate. That’s Cybersecurity Simplified – John Hurley – BH26 #1
John Hurley has more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry driving success for global, commercial and enterprise organizations. As chief revenue officer (CRO) for Optiv, he is responsible for the company’s revenue-generation strategy and go-to-market approach to drive sustainable growth.
Hurley joined Optiv from Quantum, where he served as CRO and had oversight for a global sales organization and all routes to market. He also led Quantum’s transition from a traditional hardware business to software only, subscription and SaaS offerings. Previously, Hurley spent the majority of his career in various leadership roles at Cisco and Dell spanning sales, go-to-market strategies and growth marketing.
Hurley is active in the community and committed to helping foster the next generation of leadership. He serves and has served as a board member or executive sponsor for a number of philanthropic organizations including the University of Michigan Mott Classic, American Hospital Association Dallas, Cystic Fibrosis of Michigan and Van Andel Institute and Connected Women’s Group of Midwest Technology Leaders.
The Agent Is the New Insider: Why Human Risk Doesn’t Stop at People – Leslie Nielsen – BH26 #1
Leslie leads Mimecast’s global cybersecurity strategy as CISO, including threat intelligence, risk management, and detection and response, while ensuring regulatory compliance to protect Mimecast’s more than 42,000 global customers. With over 25 years of cybersecurity experience, he is known for driving innovative security strategies and building resilient, high-performing teams. He joined Mimecast from Klaviyo, where he served as SVP and CISO and helped scale the company to $1.3 billion in revenue, strengthen its security posture, and lead its security function through IPO. Before that, he was SVP and CISO at Nuance Communications, joining after a major malware attack to lead an accelerated security transformation that helped position the company as one of Microsoft’s largest acquisitions.
Earlier in his career, Leslie held senior security leadership roles at SAP Concur and SuccessFactors as VP and CISO, served as CTO at SOS Security, and held senior positions at IBM and ACS (acquired by Xerox); he has also served on Google’s CISO Cloud Advisory Board. Leslie holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Texas Tech University.
Model, harness, gym: why Novee owns the full AI pentesting stack – Ido Geffen – BH26 #1
Ido Geffen is the CEO and co-founder of Novee, the leader in AI-powered penetration testing. He brings over 20 years of experience across offensive and defensive cybersecurity, including nation-scale operations, vulnerability exploitation, and defense.
Through his work on national defense, he and fellow Novee co-founders Gon Chalamish and Omer Ninburg saw enterprises facing an impossible challenge: deploying code continuously while testing security only quarterly, even as attackers operate 24/7 with AI-powered tools. They founded Novee in May 2025 to clone their combined expertise into an agent that runs continuously, finding zero-days, business logic flaws, and complex attack chains that traditional tools miss.
How Menlo Security Is Securing AI Agents from Prompt Injection – Ramin Farassat – BH26 #1
Executive Product Leader with a proven track record of scaling SaaS platforms, driving AI-led innovation, and delivering sustained enterprise growth. I bridge boardroom strategy with day-to-day execution, aligning product direction with market opportunity, investor priorities, and operational excellence.
AI Pentesting and the Future of Cybersecurity – Chris Wallis – BH26 #1
Chris Wallis is the founder and CEO of Intruder. With deep experience in both offensive security and defensive operations, Chris has worked hands-on with global banks, major financial institutions, and critical national infrastructure, securing some of the most targeted and high-risk environments in the world. This blend of attacker-led insight and real-world defense crafted Intruder’s practical approach to finding and fixing the vulnerabilities that matter before they can be exploited.
Delinea Delivers Runtime Authorization for AI Agents, Closing Access Control Gap – Frank Vukovits – BH26 #1
Frank Vukovits is Chief Security Scientist at Delinea and a 30-year experienced auditor, security, and business software professional. As a user, Frank has implemented and managed numerous ERP projects and now combines his software, security, and audit knowledge in his role at Delinea and is a frequent speaker at user groups and audit events. Frank has held corporate IT audit roles, and he carries Certified Internal Auditor and Certified Information Systems Auditor designations. Previously he was also a CISSP. He has presented educational sessions publicly for the past two decades and has been on all sides of auditing, as a user, an auditor, and a vendor of audit and security software in his role currently at Delinea.
The Hidden Risks of the AI Supply Chain – Michael Leland – BH26 #1
Michael Leland brings over 30 years of data networking, operations, and cybersecurity domain expertise. He formerly served as Head of Technical Marketing and Chief Cybersecurity Evangelist at SentinelOne where he was responsible for messaging and strategic development of their XDR product roadmap as well as the identity security portfolio. Prior to SentinelOne, he held the title of Chief Technical Strategist for McAfee. Michael was the co-founder and CTO of NitroSecurity – later acquired by McAfee – where he was responsible for developing and implementing their overall SIEM technology vision and roadmap and has held senior technical management positions at Cabletron and Avaya.
The Business Case for Cybersecurity Workforce Resilience – Lynn Dohm – BH26 #1
Lynn Dohm, Executive Director of Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS), leads initiatives to recruit, retain and advance women in cybersecurity. With over two decades of experience as a strategist, she has successfully aligned businesses, nonprofits and grant-funded programs with workforce goals. Her accolades include an honorary Doctor of Science & Technology from Champlain College (2024), two SANS Difference Maker Awards and recognition as one of CS Hub’s Top 25 Cybersecurity Leaders. Lynn also contributes to the cybersecurity community through her roles on the CSA AI Initiative, the UMGC CIT Advisory Board, and as a Board Member for the CIS Alan Paller Laureate Program.
