On the RSAC Conference show floor, Tony Anscombe shared how ESET has expanded its threat intelligence offering with ECR reports -- designed to give commercial organizations both machine-readable feeds and human-readable analysis. The reason: threat actors are increasingly hard to attribute, they share tools, run coordinated campaigns, and reinvest profits into more sophisticated operations. Having someone do the research and surface actionable intelligence is no longer a luxury.

Anscombe pointed to a telling campaign pattern from last year: threat actors refined attack methods against UK retailers, then rapidly adapted those same techniques against US retailers. The implication is clear -- your business may be unique in its infrastructure, but it is not unique in its sector. Understanding how your sector is being targeted is the foundation of a prevention-first posture.

Automation came up as equally non-negotiable. If it takes three days to collect all the information needed to make a determination about an incident, the post-attack phase has already begun. ESET Inspect is designed to flip that equation: when an analyst opens an incident, the forensic analysis is done, the evidence is visualized, and the determination can be made on facts rather than gathered through investigation.

Anscombe was careful to draw a line between automation as speed and automation as replacement. ESET's position is that AI should operate alongside human expertise -- trust and verify applies to AI-assisted analysis just as it does to any intelligence feed. Oversight remains essential, even as the tooling gets faster.

A preview of upcoming survey data offered one of the more striking moments in the conversation. Roughly 35% of SMBs using MDR are sourcing that service directly from their cyber insurer. Anscombe flagged the monoculture risk: when a large share of businesses in the same sector run identical security stacks, a single point of failure becomes a sector-wide vulnerability. His advice after 30 years in the industry -- different organizations should deliberately choose different platforms to maintain diversity.

This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight

GUEST

Tony Anscombe, Chief Security Evangelist, ESET
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyanscombe/

RESOURCES

ESET: https://www.eset.com
ESET Threat Intelligence: https://www.eset.com/int/business/services/threat-intelligence/

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KEYWORDS

Tony Anscombe, ESET, Sean Martin, Marco Ciappelli, brand spotlight, brand marketing, marketing podcast, threat intelligence, cyber resilience, MDR, EDR, XDR, managed detection and response, SMB security, cybersecurity automation, RSAC Conference 2026, prevention-first security, cyber insurance, monoculture risk, ESET Inspect, APT research

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