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News2 min read·2026-10-21DisconfirmAI Editorial

Dell's Chief Security Officer: AI Has Crumbled Attack Barriers; Future Security May Be One Person Commanding 10,000 Agents

John Scimone, president and chief security officer of Dell Technologies, argued in a New York summit interview that agentic AI has not erased the hierarchy among hacktivists, criminal gangs and nation-states, but has handed lower-tier actors tools once reserved for the top. He concluded that defenders must use AI to fight AI, and predicted that a future security program might be run by one person commanding 10,000 agents — an opportunity that could matter most to organizations that have never been able to staff a full security team.

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Original publication time 2026-10-21 02:52 GMT+8

John Scimone, president and chief security officer of Dell Technologies, shared a specific judgment on how AI is reshaping the cyber offense-defense landscape during an interview with theCUBE Research host Dave Vellante at the October 2026 New York summit. His core argument: the attack pyramid still exists, but the barriers to entry have crumbled.

Scimone's exact words were: 'I think the pyramid still exists, but undoubtedly the cost of entry and the barriers to entry have crumbled.' He elaborated: 'Said another way, the least sophisticated attack tomorrow is more sophisticated than the world will have ever seen a year ago.' This means agentic AI has not erased the old hierarchy of hacktivists, criminal gangs and nation-states, but it has handed lower-tier actors tools once reserved for the top.

The defensive implication is that cybersecurity professionals are going to have to use AI to defend against AI. Scimone sees a huge opportunity to leverage this capability for good, and that opportunity could matter most to organizations that have never been able to staff a full security team. He offered a specific prediction of a future form: 'Our future security program might be a security program of one person, but it might have 10,000 agents, all of which are the best security practitioners in the space and the roles in which they're assigned.'

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Scimone also noted that the fundamentals of identity, access management and detection still apply, but attacks now arrive at a speed and scale that make yesterday's practices insufficient. He mentioned that Dell is already putting frontier models to work on its own defenses and is a partner in Anthropic PBC's Project Glasswing, which gives vetted organizations access to powerful AI tools to secure critical systems.

Background to note: theCUBE is a paid media partner for the Dell Technologies New York Symposium, and Dell is the sponsor of the event. Scimone's views represent his personal and Dell's strategic judgment; the '10,000 agents' scenario is currently a vision rather than a publicly verified operational practice.

Sources

  • 原始出处siliconangle.com↗
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