Stuart McClure's keynote at FCON explored the intersection where artificial intelligence and cybersecurity meet — a confluence that Stuart has been navigating since before either term was commonly applied to enterprise technology. As the founder of Cylance, which built the first AI-native endpoint security platform, he brought to FCON a perspective grounded in actual product development rather than theoretical analysis.
The presentation addressed both sides of the AI-cybersecurity intersection: AI as a defense tool and AI as an attack capability. On the defensive side, Stuart traced the evolution from Cylance's original static binary analysis approach — applying machine learning to predict maliciousness from file properties alone — through increasingly sophisticated AI defense architectures that incorporate behavioral signals, network telemetry, and threat intelligence feeds. On the offensive side, he examined how attackers are beginning to use AI to automate reconnaissance, generate convincing social engineering content, and defeat AI-based defenses through adversarial techniques.
The core thesis of the presentation is that the AI-security intersection is not merely a technical development but a fundamental shift in the nature of the security competition. When both attackers and defenders are leveraging AI, the traditional advantage calculations shift: the defender's structural advantage is scale and coordination (AI can monitor everything, all the time), while the attacker's advantage is adaptability and surprise. Understanding this dynamic is essential for security leaders who need to make investment decisions in an environment where the tools on both sides are rapidly evolving.