Offensive Security Investments Surge as AI Threats Increase
Dark Reading, Thursday, August 27th, 2026
Omdia's Theresa Lanowitz on rising offensive security spend and the risks of agentic AI in red teaming.
Omdia principal analyst Theresa Lanowitz talks with Dark Reading at Black Hat USA 2026 about research showing enterprises increasing investment in penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and red teaming as attackers weaponize vulnerabilities faster.
Her research found 88% of organizations willing to spend more on offensive security, though they want agents kept under control, integrated with existing tooling, and demonstrably reducing risk.
Concerns about agentic AI include prompt injection, adversarial input, non-deterministic behavior, and token cost - hence her advice to sandbox agents and limit blast radius.
Separate supply chain research found 99% investing but only 44% building an SBOM at build time.