A note on what the sources allow: the research supports the counts and the posts named below, but several passages are short descriptions, so some details here rest on those descriptions alone.
AI moves from topic to dominant frame
Of 2,071 posts in the archive, 322 (16%) touch AI, phishing, generative AI or "weaponize". The share rises every year: 2% of posts in 2022, 16% in 2023, 24% in 2024 and 32% in 2025. The archive does not show a clean story in which weaponization overtakes defense. What it shows is AI turning from an occasional subject into the frame around much of the conversation.12
2023: AI arrives as the attacker's tool
The earliest coverage leans toward offense. In the RSAC 2023 conversation "Ethical Dilemmas in the Age of AI," Justin "Hutch" Hutchens joins Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli to discuss weaponization in social engineering, ethics, and AI integration into business workflows.3 Two months later, Jason Haddix reviews the OWASP Top 10 for large language models on Redefining CyberSecurity, covering risks that range from data leakage and unauthorized access to over-reliance on machine-generated content.4
The Black Hat 2023 episode "Hacking Humans Using LLMs" with Fredrik Heiding takes up devising and detecting phishing with large language models.5 In December, an Imperva brand story with Ron Bennatan, "Navigating the Ethical Maze of AI Usage," frames the problem as cybercriminals who could leverage AI for sophisticated social engineering attacks, and argues for ethical constraints on how AI is applied.6
Safeguarding Against Malicious Use of Large Language Models: A Review of the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs | A Conversation with Jason Haddix | Redefining CyberSecurity with Sean Martin
On this episode of Redefining CyberSecurity, we explore the OWASP Top 10 for large language models (LLMs) to uncover and discuss the potential risks and vulnerabilities associated with using…
2024: the threat gets concrete examples
In 2024 the examples get more specific. Hutchens's book conversation, "The Language of Deception: Weaponizing Next Generation AI," addresses the real and emerging risks of AI and the growing prevalence of bots.7 In "How AI-Enhanced Phishing Changes the Economic Dynamics of Phishing Attacks," Heiding of Harvard joins Martin and Ciappelli to discuss the rise of hyper-personalized phishing and its societal impact.8
At SecTor 2024, Ashley Jess walks through real examples of artificially generated malware, disinformation and scam campaigns, including deepfake propaganda.9 A SecTor conversation with Sagar Bhure covers the escalating threat of deepfakes in misinformation and financial fraud.10
Defense uses AI too: the double-edged frame
The double-edged framing predates the attacker stories. As early as April 2023, Cem Dilmegani appears on Redefining CyberSecurity in an episode titled "Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: The Double-Edged Swords in Fraud Wars."11 Marco Ciappelli's Black Hat USA 2024 reflections follow the same line.12 Heiding, in a late-2024 Redefining Society conversation with Martin, returns to the question of how cybersecurity and society shape one another.13
The 2024 year-in-review lists AI in cybersecurity among its critical themes, next to supply chain security, evolving regulations and the human element.14 Counts of tags and words cannot tell us what each post argues, so the myth below is checked against the posts rather than the totals.
A second thread: AI itself becomes the target
Alongside AI as a weapon, the archive follows AI as something to be secured. Steve Wilson, project lead for the OWASP Top 10 for LLM applications, discusses newest challenges including prompt injection in an August 2024 On Location episode.15 The 2025 OWASP update, discussed by Sandy Dunn and Rock Lambros, covers prompt injection and supply chain vulnerabilities alongside emerging threats like system prompt leakage, and explains why LLM security is unlike traditional software risk.16 In that conversation, the line is blunt:
Peter Garraghan's Infosecurity Europe conversation makes a related point, that traditional security thinking still applies to AI systems.17 Akamai's Rupesh Chokshi, previewing RSAC 2025, ties API protection to LLM-driven threats.18 His later Black Hat pre-event episode describes the rising risks of agentic AI, API exposure and bot-driven scraping.19
2025: AI is the baseline, hype is the story
By Black Hat USA 2025, the recap argues, AI "wasn't the differentiator — it was the baseline."2 A companion piece, "How Novel Is Novelty?", takes on the vendor announcements and the AI hype around them.20 The weekly update "We're Becoming Dumb and Numb" says every vendor claimed "agentic AI" while CISOs couldn't tell them apart.1
The rest of the 2025 material is about governing AI rather than fearing it. Ken Huang explains how agentic AI is transforming enterprise workflows and demanding a new approach to governance and risk.21 Izar Tarandach and Sean Martin unpack vibe coding, where AI-generated code can bypass security checks and leave teams with invisible risk.22 William Lyne of the UK's National Crime Agency talks with the hosts about ransomware, AI threats and the future of cybercrime disruption.23
When Artificial Intelligence Becomes the Baseline: Will We Even Know What Reality Is AInymore? | A Black Hat USA 2025 Recap | A Musing On the Future of Cybersecurity with Sean Martin and TAPE3 | Read by TAPE3
At Black Hat USA 2025, AI wasn’t the differentiator — it was the baseline. In this episode, I explore what happens when black-box automation takes over security decisions, the risks it…
The human element keeps reasserting itself
Steve Mancini's conversation, "Nothing Has Changed in Cybersecurity Since the 80s," argues that from War Games to ChatGPT the principles of cyber threats remain unchanged, and that over-reliance on technology is making us more vulnerable.24 Madelein van der Hout of Forrester, speaking at Infosecurity Europe 2024, ties predictions about the future to the human side of breaches.25 The archive's long arc on AI ends where its oldest argument begins: the tooling changes, and the weakest point stays human.
Questions answered in this article
How much of the ITSPmagazine archive touches AI, and how fast did it grow?
322 of 2,071 posts (16%) touch AI, phishing, generative AI or weaponize. The share rose from 2% in 2022 to 16% in 2023, 24% in 2024 and 32% in 2025.12 Read more: AI moves from topic to dominant frame
What did Justin Hutchens discuss at RSAC 2023 about AI?
Hutchens joined Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli to discuss weaponization in social engineering, ethics, and AI integration into business workflows.3 Read more: 2023: AI arrives as the attacker's tool
What did Jason Haddix cover in the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs episode?
Haddix reviewed risks of using LLMs like GPT-4, from data leakage and unauthorized access to over-reliance on machine-generated content.4 Read more: 2023: AI arrives as the attacker's tool
How does Fred Heiding say AI changes phishing attacks?
In the 2024 episode with Martin and Ciappelli, Heiding of Harvard discusses the rise of hyper-personalized phishing and its societal impact.8 Read more: 2024: the threat gets concrete examples
What real examples of AI-generated scams did Ashley Jess discuss at SecTor 2024?
Jess walked through real examples of artificially generated malware, disinformation and scam campaigns, including deepfake propaganda.9 Read more: 2024: the threat gets concrete examples
When did ITSPmagazine first frame AI as a double-edged sword?
An April 2023 episode with Cem Dilmegani was already titled Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: The Double-Edged Swords in Fraud Wars.11 Read more: Defense uses AI too: the double-edged frame
What AI security risks did the 2025 OWASP Top 10 for LLMs update cover?
Sandy Dunn and Rock Lambros discussed prompt injection, supply chain vulnerabilities and emerging threats like system prompt leakage, and why LLM security differs from traditional software risk.16 Read more: A second thread: AI itself becomes the target
What did the Black Hat USA 2025 recap say about AI?
The recap said AI was not the differentiator at Black Hat USA 2025 but the baseline, and it examined the risks of black-box automation taking over security decisions.2 Read more: 2025: AI is the baseline, hype is the story
What does Steve Mancini argue about cybersecurity and AI?
Mancini argues that from War Games to ChatGPT the principles of cyber threats remain unchanged, and that over-reliance on technology is making people more vulnerable.24 Read more: The human element keeps reasserting itself
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