Black Hat State of Security Vendors
Schneier on Security, Tuesday, August 25th, 2026
A Black Hat 2026 vendor survey finds security tools skew toward detection over ones that actually fix problems.
Security researcher Andy Ellis's analysis of roughly 450 vendor booths at Black Hat 2026 finds AI now pervades nearly every product category-Identity, SaaS, AppSec and Data-even when it's not explicit in marketing taglines.
Ellis sorts the market into diagnostic, preventative and corrective tools, finding detection-focused solutions significantly outnumber ones that actually resolve problems.
He suggests this reflects a market dynamic where, as one commenter put it, 'terror is easier to sell than salvation,' since fear-based marketing drives purchases of remediation tools more effectively than straightforward fixes.