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The Treatment Was Successful. Unfortunately the Patient Died

  • Alan Shimel--securityboulevard.com
  • published date: 2026-04-14 00:00:00 UTC

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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For the last few weeks, the cybersecurity world has been arguing about what Anthropic’s Mythos and projects like Glasswing actually mean. Some people hear the alarms and think we are watching the beginning of the end. Others think we are finally seeing the breakthrough the industry has been chasing for decades.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They may both be right.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The optimistic camp includes people I respect. In <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beginning-end-cybersecurity-jen-easterly-ch97c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a recent piece</a>, former CISA Director Jen Easterly argues that AI could mark the beginning of the end of cybersecurity as we know it, not because threats disappear but because software finally becomes secure by design.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Her argument is simple and hard to refute. Cybersecurity exists largely because we keep shipping insecure software. If AI systems can systematically discover and fix vulnerabilities, developers will eventually respond by writing better code in the first place. The endless cycle of scan, detect, patch and repeat could finally give way to resilient software.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In other words, cyber nirvana.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But there is another perspective worth listening to. Security analyst Rich Mogull <a href="https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/blog/2026/02/26/core-collapse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">describes the coming AI shockwave</a> as a kind of stellar physics event, a “core collapse” where the current model of cybersecurity compresses into something denser and stronger.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stars do not quietly become neutron stars.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They explode first.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And that supernova phase is what worries me.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/blog/2026/04/08/anthropic-s-mythos-is-here-defending-from-the-vulnpocalypse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Cloud Security Alliance recently warned</a> about what it calls the “Vulnpocalypse,” a moment when AI systems like Mythos can systematically discover vulnerabilities across the entire software ecosystem.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Think about that for a second.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For decades, the cybersecurity industry has been constrained by human limits. Even the best vulnerability researchers could only examine so much code. Exploit development required time, skill and patience. Discovery was the bottleneck.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">AI just removed that bottleneck.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tools like Mythos change the equation. Instead of a handful of elite researchers looking for weaknesses, imagine thousands of AI agents examining software continuously. They can analyze entire codebases, identify flaws and even generate exploit paths.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The industry likes to frame this as a defensive breakthrough. And maybe it is. If defenders deploy these tools first, they might uncover vulnerabilities before attackers do.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But defenders still face the same problem they always have.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Finding bugs is the easy part.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Fixing them is the hard part.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Every vulnerability still has to be triaged, prioritized, patched, tested and deployed. That process takes time and coordination. In large organizations it can take weeks or months.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Attackers do not have that problem.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They only need to find one weakness and move.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That asymmetry has always existed. What AI does is amplify it.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Imagine AI systems discovering vulnerabilities across enterprise software, open source dependencies, embedded systems and infrastructure platforms at machine speed. Now imagine attackers using similar tools to turn those discoveries into automated exploits.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That is not a hypothetical scenario. It is the logical next step.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is why Mogull’s supernova analogy resonates. In astrophysics, a star collapses when the forces that hold it together can no longer support the mass inside it. The core compresses in an instant and the outer layers explode outward.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cybersecurity may be approaching a similar moment.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For years, the industry has built an enormous ecosystem around vulnerability discovery, patching and mitigation. Vendors sell scanners. Consultants sell testing. Enterprises build entire programs around managing flaws in software.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now imagine AI discovering vulnerabilities faster than organizations can remediate them.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The entire system begins to wobble.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is not just about enterprise risk. It is also about the cybersecurity industry itself. If software eventually becomes secure by design, a lot of today’s security tooling becomes less relevant. Whole categories of vendors exist because code is insecure.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If that changes, the market changes with it.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It would not be shocking to see the number of cybersecurity companies shrink dramatically over the next decade. Maybe by half. Maybe more.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the real danger is not the long-term equilibrium. The real danger is the transition period.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Between today’s vulnerable software ecosystem and tomorrow’s secure code lies the Vulnpocalypse.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That period could look less like cyber nirvana and more like a Trail of Tears for parts of the industry. Enterprises scrambling to fix decades of accumulated vulnerabilities. Security teams drowning in findings. Attackers racing to exploit weaknesses before patches arrive.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In that environment, resilience becomes the only strategy that matters. Assume your code has flaws. Assume your infrastructure will be tested. Assume attackers have access to the same AI tools defenders do.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Because they will.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To be clear, I actually believe Easterly may be right about the destination. AI could eventually force the software industry to build systems that are fundamentally more secure. If vulnerability discovery becomes cheap and automatic, insecure coding practices will become unsustainable.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Developers will adapt. Software will improve. The ecosystem will stabilize.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But Mogull may also be right about the process that gets us there.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stars do not quietly collapse into neutron stars.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They explode first.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And when that supernova hits the cybersecurity universe, we may discover something uncomfortable.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The treatment was successful.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unfortunately, the patient died.</span></p><div class="spu-placeholder" style="display:none"></div><div class="addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content addtoany_content_bottom"><div class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_20 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://securityboulevard.com/2026/04/the-treatment-was-successful-unfortunately-the-patient-died/" data-a2a-title="The Treatment Was Successful. 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