TechTarget and Informa Tech’s Digital Business Combine. Dark Reading Resource Library Black Hat News Omdia Cybersecurity Advertise NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP Cybersecurity Topics World The Edge DR Technology Events Resources CYBERSECURITY OPERATIONS CYBER RISK VULNERABILITIES & THREATS ICS/OT SECURITY INTERVIEWS Cybersecurity In-Depth: Feature articles on security strategy, latest trends, and people to know. RSAC 2026: How AI Is Reshaping Cybersecurity Faster Than Ever Dark Reading's Kelly Jackson Higgins shares insights on the past, present, and future of cybersecurity after attending RSAC 2026 Conference. Kristina Beek,Kelly Jackson Higgins April 7, 2026 SOURCE: INFORMA TECHTARGET As RSAC 2026 Conference wrapped up its final day Kelly Jackson Higgins, Editor-in-Chief of Dark Reading and VP of cybersecurity editorial at Informa TechTarget, took to Broadcast Alley to discuss with Jamison Cush and Sabrina Polin about what she noticed at the conference this year. In a week dominated by conversations around AI, cybersecurity advancements, and industry challenges, Jackson Higgins provided a unique perspective on the rapid evolution of technology and its impact on organizations. Her insights underscored the unprecedented pace at which AI is transforming the cybersecurity landscape, leaving many companies scrambling to adapt as threat actors continue to raise the stakes. Jackson Higgins reflected on the collaborative efforts of Informa TechTarget's three cybersecurity brands — Dark Reading, Cybersecurity Dive, and TechTarget SearchSecurity — highlighting their distinct, separate approaches to covering the cybersecurity industry. With a shared commitment to delivering tailored content for diverse audiences, the brands have successfully avoided duplication while offering a comprehensive view of critical issues. Jackson Higgins described their strategy as a "360-degree" approach, ensuring that CISOs, SOC managers, risk professionals, and others receive the information they need to navigate the industry's complexities. Related:Human vs AI: Debates Shape RSAC 2026 Cybersecurity Trends As the conversation delved into the evolution of cybersecurity over the past two decades, Jackson Higgins shared her observations on the industry's growth and challenges. From the early days of limited vendors and rudimentary threats to today's sprawling ecosystem of 4,000 vendors and sophisticated attacks, the transformation has been remarkable. Yet, some issues, such as authentication and software vulnerabilities, remain stubbornly persistent. Jackson Higgins emphasized the importance of learning from history while preparing for the future, particularly as AI continues to reshape the cybersecurity landscape at an unprecedented speed. Live at RSAC 2026: Our Coverage is the Best of Three Worlds: Full Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity and length by Informa TechTarget's internal AI assistant. For the full experience, please watch the video, above. LOADING... Jamison Cush: Hello, and welcome to day four, our final day of live streaming coverage from RSAC Conference 2026. I'm Jamison Cush with Informa TechTarget. And if you missed day one, two, or three, and you'd like to watch it again, check it out on Eye on Tech. We chatted with the cybersecurity experts from Informa TechTarget, as well as thought leaders from WiCyS, ISACA, and other organizations. Related:Geopolitics, AI, and Cybersecurity: Insights From RSAC 2026 Joining me once again to share in hosting duties, senior managing editor from Informa TechTarget, Sabrina Polin. Sabrina, welcome back. Sabrina Polin: Happy to be here. Little bittersweet. It's our last interview of the week. JC: And then once it ends, not to look past what we're about to do here, but Wolverine is going to be down the hall singing or dancing. SP: Yes, PT Barnum also, you know. JC: That's Hugh Jackman. SP: You might see him if you guys notice a big crowd behind us. We are celebrities, but it won't be for us. It will be for Hugh Jackman. JC: Excellent. Yes. And I always like to use that to segue to our celebrity guest. Absolutely. It's actually our final guest from RSAC Conference 2026. Welcome to Kelly Jackson Higgins, the Editor-in-Chief of Dark Reading and the VP of cybersecurity editorial at Informa TechTarget. Kelly, welcome. Kelly Jackson Higgins: Thank you. They got me because they couldn't get Hugh, so I was glad to fill in for him. JC: RSAC pays a lot more for their guests than we do. So, the show is just about in the books. It's all wrapped up, and we've had your team here chatting with us. We've talked AI, people in AI came up a lot, on the line versus in the line. A little bit of politics as well. So, I was wondering what did you see, or what stood out to you from the show this year? Related:RSAC 2026: AI Dominates, But Community Remains Key to Security KJH: Yeah. So, I spent most of my time in meetings rooms with people. So, I didn't see a lot of the show, but one thing that really struck me about the show this year was — last year there was a conversation about "Oh agentic AI is next, and it's going to take a while." Well, it happened way faster. So, I feel like we're in this AI wave is nothing we've seen before in the industry in terms of like cyber advancements. It happened much faster than we expected, and it's happening faster than a lot of organizations are ready. The big conversation I know in the past year was "Well, this is our chance to get ahead of the bad guys." That didn't happen. So now most companies are paying catch-up. And the vendors are all coming out with AI-type tools, some different than others, but it's you have to know what it is behind the behind the curtain. Totally. SP: So, we are here from Informa Tech Target. We've got a lot of experts under our belt. We've got colleagues everywhere at the show this year: Dark Reading, Cybersecurity Dive, TechTarget SearchSecurity. How do you approach covering a show like this with this really incredible group of brands under Informa TechTarget? KJH: That's a great question. We have I'm so proud of this team. We have some of the most talented journalists in the industry and editors, hands down. We work really closely together. We keep our unique brand approaches. You know, our whole strategies are different. But we actually work together. We meet weekly and one of the things we had a massive spreadsheet of planning who was doing what. So, we weren't, you know, duplicating effort. And there wasn't any duplication. And we definitely were sharing each other's content, you know, amplifying it. We all had dinner together. There was one night we were all here. We staggered our arrivals and departures for maximum resources. And we met up for dinner Tuesday night. It was great because it was just we have a really good chemistry with the group which really helps how we work together. And you know, we definitely in some ways compete with each other for stories, but we also like very much respect one another's, you know, approaches, expertise, and really do I think we all kind of benefit from one another's approaches to things. So, yeah. JC: Nice. And it's been a year and a half, I think, just about a year and a half since the brands combined. So just a bigger picture how is that working and playing out and how is that how are you approaching uh just the covering the cybersecurity massive topic in general? KJH: Yeah. So, you know, I think my, you know, like anyone, I was worried, are we going to accidentally cannibalize each other or, you know, duplicate effort? But because we have different audience approaches and content strategies, um, we don't. You might have a topic that we've maybe all three cover, but you're going to get three different types of stories and different information each of those stories. So I like to say we're like a 360 of this of a topic. If you want to read about something, you can read this news story from Cybersecurity Dive that's, you know, made for the CISO cyber risk perspective. You might read a Dark Reading story that has a news analysis secret sauce as we call it, or SearchSecurity, a really deeply researched and technical piece on where you're going to get the full picture of you if you want to research a topic you're going to go there. So, you literally have the best of three worlds I would say with the three brands. I really feel strongly about that, and I've seen it in action the last year and a half. SP: I have to make a Hannah Montana reference because we just had the 20th anniversary best of both worlds. Um, and I love that you said best of three worlds. I just, you know, I know that my audience out here will appreciate that, but um, that's a really amazing. JC: I have no idea what you're talking about. SP: Oh my gosh. 20 years of Hannah Montana. Anyway: So it's been 20 years of Dark Reading. Excellent segue if I do say so myself. 20 years of Dark Reading. So that's just about 20 years of RSA and now RSAC coverage. What's changed in from then to now? Is there anything that's drawing parallels? Anything noticeably different? I'd love to hear what you've seen in this industry in this space over the last 20 years. KJH: So, 20 years ago and I wasn't at RSA 20 years ago. We didn't go early days there was a two-person three-person staff. We just didn't have budget for these things. Um, but what I've seen change in the last 20 years and it's been fun looking back, you know, to see what we were writing about in 2006. There weren't very many security vendors back then. A lot of the security products were from networking companies who were selling security tool like firewalls and then there was anti-virus companies. So, there weren't as anywhere near as many vendors there now. So, it wasn't a big trade show. It was more of a conference back then. A little more technical in some ways. You know, it was obviously RSA the company started. There was a lot of emphasis on the encryption algorithms and things like tha