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Accelerating adoption of AI for cybersecurity at DEF CON 33

Posted by Elie Bursztein and Marianna Tishchenko, Google Privacy, Safety and Security Team Empowering cyber defenders with AI is critical to tilting the cybersecurity balance back in their favor as they battle cybercriminals and keep users safe.

At a glance

AI involvement
Defensive AI research (reported)
Sources
1 source

What to do

Read the exact official research article before applying its defensive techniques or drawing conclusions.

Read Google Security Research: Accelerating adoption of AI for cybersecurity at DEF CON 33 (opens a new tab)

What happened

Posted by Elie Bursztein and Marianna Tishchenko, Google Privacy, Safety and Security Team

Empowering cyber defenders with AI is critical to tilting the cybersecurity balance back in their favor as they battle cybercriminals and keep users safe. To help accelerate adoption of AI for cybersecurity workflows, we partnered with Airbus at DEF CON 33 to host the GenSec Capture the Flag (CTF) , dedicated to human-AI collaboration in cybersecurity.

Our goal was to create a fun, interactive environment, where participants across various skill levels could explore how AI can accelerate their daily cybersecurity workflows.

At GenSec CTF, nearly 500 participants successfully completed introductory challenges, with 23% of participants using AI for cybersecurity for the very first time. An overwhelming 85% of all participants found the event useful for learning how AI can be applied to security workflows. This positive feedback highlights that AI-centric CTFs can play a vital role in speeding up AI education and adoption in the security community.

Continue reading

The CTF also offered a valuable opportunity for the community to use Sec-Gemini , Google’s experimental Cybersecurity AI, as an optional assistant available in the UI alongside major LLMs. And we received great feedback on Sec-Gemini, with 77% of respondents saying that they had found Sec-Gemini either “very helpful” or “extremely helpful” in assisting them with solving the challenges.

We want to thank the DEF CON community for the enthusiastic participation and for making this inaugural event a resounding success. The community feedback during the event has been invaluable for understanding how to improve Sec-Gemini, and we are already incorporating some of the lessons learned into the next iteration.

We are committed to advancing the AI cybersecurity frontier and will continue working with the community to build tools that help protect people online. Stay tuned as we plan to share more research and key learnings from the CTF with the broader community.

AI involvement

Reported; not independently confirmed here

Defensive AI research

The official teams report AI-assisted security detection, vulnerability discovery, or defender workflows. The result was not independently reproduced here and does not establish attacker AI use or universal effectiveness.

Read the attribution evidence (opens a new tab)

Sources

  1. Primary source

    Google Security Research: Accelerating adoption of AI for cybersecurity at DEF CON 33 (opens a new tab)

    Exact official article/advisory identified by the feed; title, source dates, and any supplied article excerpt.

    Published Checked

  2. Primary source

    Google Security Research syndication feed (opens a new tab)

    The RSS/Atom/RDF entry supplied this exact link and any available title, date, and excerpt.

    Published Date not suppliedChecked

Cite this record

For factual claims, cite the primary sources above; cite KEVWire for its compilation, dates, and classifications.

APA

KEVWire. (2025, September 24). Accelerating adoption of AI for cybersecurity at DEF CON 33. https://kevwire.com/record/google-security-accelerating-adoption-of-ai-for-20a64891405d

MLA

"Accelerating adoption of AI for cybersecurity at DEF CON 33." KEVWire, 24 Sept. 2025, kevwire.com/record/google-security-accelerating-adoption-of-ai-for-20a64891405d.

Chicago

KEVWire. "Accelerating adoption of AI for cybersecurity at DEF CON 33." Last modified September 24, 2025. https://kevwire.com/record/google-security-accelerating-adoption-of-ai-for-20a64891405d.

Evidence summary (plain text)

Accelerating adoption of AI for cybersecurity at DEF CON 33 (Sep 24, 2025).
Posted by Elie Bursztein and Marianna Tishchenko, Google Privacy, Safety and Security Team 

 Empowering cyber defenders with AI is critical to tilting the cybersecurity balance back in their favor as they battle cybercriminals and keep users safe. To help accelerate adoption of AI for cybersecurity workflows, we partnered with Airbus at DEF CON 33 to host the GenSec Capture the Flag (CTF) , dedicated to human-AI collaboration in cybersecurity. Our goal was to create a fun, interactive environment, where participants across various skill levels could explore how AI can accelerate their daily cybersecurity workflows. 

 At GenSec CTF, nearly 500 participants successfully completed introductory challenges, with 23% of participants using AI for cybersecurity for the very first time. An overwhelming 85% of all participants found the event useful for learning how AI can be applied to security workflows. This positive feedback highlights that AI-centric CTFs can play a vital role in speeding up AI education and adoption in the security community. 

 The CTF also offered a valuable opportunity for the community to use Sec-Gemini , Google’s experimental Cybersecurity AI, as an optional assistant available in the UI alongside major LLMs. And we received great feedback on Sec-Gemini, with 77% of respondents saying that they had found Sec-Gemini either “very helpful” or “extremely helpful” in assisting them with solving the challenges. 

 We want to thank the DEF CON community for the enthusiastic participation and for making this inaugural event a resounding success. The community feedback during the event has been invaluable for understanding how to improve Sec-Gemini, and we are already incorporating some of the lessons learned into the next iteration. 

 We are committed to advancing the AI cybersecurity frontier and will continue working with the community to build tools that help protect people online. Stay tuned as we plan to share more research and key learnings from t
AI classification: defense; evidence: reported. The official teams report AI-assisted security detection, vulnerability discovery, or defender workflows. The result was not independently reproduced here and does not establish attacker AI use or universal effectiveness.
Sources:
Google Security Research: Accelerating adoption of AI for cybersecurity at DEF CON 33: https://security.googleblog.com/2025/09/accelerating-adoption-of-ai-for.html
Google Security Research syndication feed: https://security.googleblog.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss&redirect=false&max-results=50
Record ID: google-security-accelerating-adoption-of-ai-for-20a64891405d.
Record origin: Ingested record.
AI evidence: Reported; not independently confirmed here.
About this data

This record was ingested from a data source. Retrieved: Oct 26, 2026, 23:35 UTC. Ingestion is not an independent editorial investigation.

This is an excerpt of official research, not a reproduced result or evidence of exposure to a scored vulnerability.

Technology tags indicate possible relevance, not verified exposure. Confirm the affected product, version, and configuration against your own inventory; KEVWire does not scan your systems.

A personal reading checklist on this device, not verified remediation.

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