Stratechery Argues Agentic Cybersecurity Structurally Favors Offense, and That Favors Startups

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Ben Thompson's August 23 piece contends that in agentic cybersecurity the incentives point toward offense, and that the same dynamic is what will constrain incumbent security vendors while fueling new entrants over the long run. The framing matters because most enterprise agent-security pitches this month have been defensive tooling, runtime guards, and MCP scanners sold by established players. If the asymmetry is real, buying agent security from an incumbent is buying the slower side of the trade.