AI Gets Autonomous, Security Gets Collaborative

Some call the RSA Conference a place to find solutions to all your cybersecurity problems, some call it an industry circus, and some call it a professional reunion. To Alpesh Shah, VP Security Strategic Alliances at Myriad360, this year’s RSA maintained its unique mix of creative innovation, networking, and future-forward security trends. For Neeraj Methi, Myriad360's VP Security Practice, attending his first RSA was eye-opening, despite his 25 years in the industry, "I was captivated by the number of innovative security vendors I had never heard of. Their AI-first approaches aren't just disrupting the market—they're rewriting the cybersecurity playbook."

This year's event maintained its reputation as cybersecurity's premier gathering place, with some notable changes on the exhibitor floor. While marquee vendors like Palo Alto Networks opted for adjacent events rather than booth space, the conference still delivered highlights around autonomous AI, visibility and identity securitysolutions, and collaborative defense, in addition to some notable announcements.

The Rise of Autonomous Security

The most significant shift observed this year was the evolution from generative AI to fully autonomous "Agentic AI" security systems. Shah notes, "This year vendors talked more about the use cases of AI rather than passively using AI." The cybersecurity market is rapidly embracing artificial intelligence, with a clear progression beyond just basic generative capabilities.

These new autonomous systems independently observe, decide, and act—effectively automating the entire security lifecycle. According to Methi, "Vendors are still testing and exploring the boundaries of agentic AI security; however, generative AI has become a given capability to be expected." While agentic AI security remains in the experimental stage for many products, orchestration vendors are actively building use cases to demonstrate possibilities, and identity vendors are developing token exchanges to make agentic AIfeasible in enterprise environments with appropriate security and governance.

The "One Cyber Community" Movement

Perhaps the most promising trend was the focus on collaborative and integrated defense. The days of siloed security products appear to be waning as more vendors highlight their integration capabilities. Cross-vendor partnerships were emphasized throughout the conference, with notable collaborations between Salt Security and CrowdStrike, SentinelOne and Cloudflare, among others.

"Partnership between different vendors to share security risk signals with each other to get ahead of bad actors is growing," says Methi, noting that identity security remains the most frequently attacked and compromised layer. “Identity vendors are increasingly partnering with perimeter, endpoint, and cloud infrastructure providers to exchange risk signals and respond to attacks more rapidly.”

Identity Security Takes Center Stage

Consequently,identity security solutionswere another big focus. The latest Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) revealed that stolen credentials were responsible for 60% of breaches. Human and non-human identity management vendors were well-represented, showcasing AI-driven approaches to passwordless authentication and mobile passkeys.

Cybersecurity Visibility is Critical

Another major trend at this year’s RSA was the critical need for comprehensive visibility across security environments. With many clients struggling with cybersecurity visibility, vendors prominently showcased solutions to address this issue.

Myriad360 partnered with Axonius for a public presentation to convey why visibility is important and how organizations can address their blind spots. The presentation highlighted Myriad360's custom cybersecurity visibility assessment powered by Axonius, offering a practical approach to solving one of cybersecurity's most persistent challenges.

Notable Announcements

The RSA Conference also serves as a platform for major announcements and product launches. Myriad360’s Shah and Methi share some highlights:

Innovation Recognition

For those tracking industry innovation, this year's Innovation Sandbox award went to ProjectDiscovery, recognized for their open-source tools that help security teams rapidly remediate vulnerabilities.

"The afterhours parties, client meetings, and circus on the expo floor, along with AI innovationeverywhere, sums up this year's RSA!" exclaims Shah. With another year for the books, the RSA Conference once again delivered on its promise toshowcase cybersecurity trends—increasingly autonomous, collaborative, and identity-focused.