Do we still need Security Awareness Month?

Do We Still Need Cybersecurity Awareness Month in the Age of AI Agents and Deepfakes? (Denis Villeneuve, Kyndryl Canada)

Recorded after a brutal October of rapid-fire zero-days, Cybersecurity Today host David Shipley asks whether Cybersecurity Awareness Month still matters; Denis Villeneuve, who leads cyber resilience and connectivity at Kyndryl Canada, argues it does—and should be continuous.

They discuss how awareness must evolve beyond phishing to address AI's speed, cognitive risk, and "shadow AI," using a 20/60/20 framework for goal-setting, automation, and validation while stressing that responsibility can be delegated but accountability cannot. Denis explains that deepfakes may counterfeit faces or voices but shouldn't defeat resilient business processes, advocating strong approvals, callbacks, and even code words. The conversation covers AI agent governance, overprivileged identities, tech debt, vendor maturity, modernization delays, and the need for guardrails, human-in-command controls, and tested remediation plans—"basics at speed" to make AI-driven change trustworthy.

00:00 Black October Opens 01:32 Meet Denis Villeneuve 04:07 Cyber Awareness Every Month 05:40 AI Speed And Cognition 09:00 Deepfakes And Process 12:17 Shadow AI Basics 14:35 Agents In The Wild 17:42 Identity For Every Agent 21:57 Making Compliance Not Suck 26:10 2027 CISO Priorities 28:33 Genie Coefficient And Models 34:08 Burnout And Hope 36:04 Closing Thanks