Hack, Hallucinate, Burn Out

Join us Tuesday, June 17th for a session that hits two of the most talked-about (and least balanced) topics in security right now: how AI is changing offensive security, and what it's quietly doing to the people doing the work.
AI in Offensive Security and Practitioner Burnout Presented by Jaxson Engelman and Chris Swecker of Appalachia Technologies

Part 1 — AI Across the Penetration Testing Lifecycle A walk through each phase of the PTES methodology across network, web, wireless, and mobile contexts: AI-assisted OSINT and recon, LLM-generated phishing, deepfake-enabled vishing, and generative payload mutation and fuzzing. Plus the pitfalls red teamers have to manage — hallucinated false positives, skill erosion from over-reliance, and the legal and ethical exposure that comes when scope and authorization aren't nailed down.

Part 2 — The Algorithmic Breaking Point: AI Burnout and Practitioner-Led Resilience Practitioners are burning out at rates of 63–85%, and roughly 70% now point the finger at AI — the same tools meant to make the job easier. Meanwhile 42% of enterprise AI initiatives were abandoned in 2025. This half digs into why AI is amplifying cognitive load instead of reducing it, and what individuals and informal team leaders can actually do about it now — drawing on workforce research, organizational psychology, and resilience frameworks from aviation and healthcare.