Cybersecurity at the Speed of AI

Opening Keynote: Autonomous Offense: AI, Agentic Pen Testing, and the Race to Patch Faster

In a recent benchmark, a set of pre-release AI models were boxed into an isolated sandbox and asked to solve a cyber challenge. They didn't just solve it — they exploited a zero-day to break out, escalated privileges, moved laterally to the internet, chained stolen credentials into remote code execution on a real company's production servers, and pulled the answer key straight from the database. All to pass a test.  The reflex is to say "the model went rogue." It didn't. It did exactly what an objective-obsessed optimizer does when you give it a goal and remove the guardrails — and that's the expected behavior, not an anomaly. Using this incident as a live case study, XBOW CSO Nico Waisman unpacks what it takes to point autonomous agents at real systems without burning them down. Attendees will leave knowing how today's agents behave under pressure, and why your own guardrails are part of the attack surface.

Panel 1: The AI-Native Enterprise: Securing Software, Data, and Decision-Making at Scale

AI has fundamentally changed the economics of attack and defense. Agentic systems can now probe environments, chain vulnerabilities, and operate continuously at a scale no human red team can match — and adversaries have access to the same capabilities as defenders. This panel brings together practitioners tackling what it means to secure software, data pipelines, and automated decision-making in an enterprise where AI is no longer optional and the threat landscape moves at machine speed.

Lunch & Networking Break

Panel 2: Cyber State of the Union: Cyber Ops & Disruption in the Age of AI

Cyber is no longer a supporting domain — it is a war-fighting domain. From hardening satellite constellations and space-based assets against adversary interference, to defending critical networks at the speed of machine decision-making, America's military cyber enterprise is operating in an environment defined by near-peer competition, cross-domain threats, and the disruptive potential of AI on both sides of the conflict. Great-power adversaries are investing heavily in capabilities designed to blind, deceive, and degrade — and the lessons of Ukraine, the Pacific, and beyond make clear that cyber superiority is inseparable from mission success. This panel brings together some of the most operationally seasoned cyber and space commanders in the U.S. military to deliver a frank assessment of where the joint force stands today — and what it will take to deter, defend, and prevail in the conflicts ahead.

Networking Break

Panel 3: The CISO Mandate: AI Risk, Board Accountability, and Defensible Security Programs

The CISO role has become one of the most scrutinized jobs in the enterprise. Boards want measurable risk reduction. Regulators want accountability. Business units want AI adoption. Security teams are expected to move faster while defending against more automated, better-resourced adversaries.  This panel will bring together leading DMV-area CISOs for a practical discussion about what is actually changing in security leadership.

Networking Break

Panel 4: What's up with CMMC? The latest for the Defense Industrial Base

By the time this panel convenes, the DoW's 60-day CMMC review will have concluded and the Defense Industrial Base will have its answer: what does the reformed framework actually require?  This panel will make sense of the moment — what changed, what didn't, and what it means in practice for contractors navigating CUI protection, NIST SP 800-171, SPRS scoring, and supply chain risk. More importantly, we'll address the question no review can answer for you: how do you build a security posture that doesn't need to be rebuilt every time the compliance framework shifts. The organizations best positioned heading into whatever comes next never confused compliance with security. This panel is for them.

Closing Keynote: The Network in Your Pocket Is Working Against You

Every call, text, and location ping you generate flows through mobile infrastructure that was never designed with your security in mind — and adversaries have noticed. From SS7 exploits and SIM-swap fraud to nation-state campaigns like Salt Typhoon that burrowed into major U.S. carriers, the telecom layer has become one of the most consequential and least understood attack surfaces in cybersecurity. Drawing on his years running Palantir's national security business and his experience in U.S. Army Special Forces, John Doyle will trace how the mobile network became a surveillance engine, why the personal data carriers collect is a liability for everyone from DoD operators to everyday consumers, and what it takes to rebuild connectivity with privacy as the default rather than an afterthought. He'll close with a candid look at what defenders, builders, and policymakers in the DMV can do to reclaim control of the infrastructure we all depend on.

Closing Remarks

Cocktail Reception

Join us for a networking happy hour!