Video Archives - ShiftMag

AI Won’t Replace Security Tools – It’s Helping Them Prioritize Biggest Threats

Marin Pavelić — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:24:51 +0000

For Mackenzie Jackson (Developer and Security Advocate, Aikido Security) modern security is a nonstop game of whack-a-mole, with alerts and vulnerabilities keeping teams busy putting out fires instead of preventing them.

But that chaos of cybersecurity is familiar territory for him: he investigates attacks and helps teams turn those findings into actionable steps.

But strip away the complexity, and his advice on security is surprisingly simple:

One of the biggest areas for smaller teams to focus on is simply stopping the bleeding.

You don’t need a flawless system, you need to regain control, and by implementing proactive measures companies neutralize threats before they ever touch production. It’s not a complete solution, but it’s a necessary foundation.

Cybersecurity rests on two pillars: people and access

From the outside, cybersecurity looks like a web of interconnected threats and technically, and it is. But when incidents are investigated, the story tends to collapse into something much more… human:

When you actually investigate a breach, what happened? Well, someone was probably phished, their credentials stolen, and that gave access to a system.

From there, attackers escalate, finding additional credentials, uncovering secrets, moving laterally through systems. Despite all the layers of technical complexity, most breaches still come down to two variables: people and access. This doesn’t make security easy, but it does make it clearer.

Brakes make race cars faster – and security works the same way

One of the oldest problems in cybersecurity is organizational: How do you convince leadership to invest in something that, ideally, prevents things from happening?

Fear is the usual tactic so you talk about reputational damage, financial loss, worst-case scenarios. It works, but only to a point and that is why Jackson suggests a different framing:

Brakes make race cars go faster.

It’s a counterintuitive analogy, but an effective one: without brakes, speed becomes dangerous. With them, drivers can push harder, take sharper turns, and move faster with confidence. Security, in this sense is an enabler:

If we build security now, we can innovate faster… establish your brakes so that you can go faster with confidence.

The alternative, adding security later, under pressure from compliance or customer demands almost always slows teams down.

Security tools are here to stay, but AI gives them context

The arrival of AI introduced a pattern: urgency first, understanding later.

After tools like GPT entered the mainstream, companies rushed to integrate AI into their security products. But much of that early adoption, Jackson suggests, was surface-level. The real value of AI lies elsewhere:

AI is a terrible scanner… but it’s great at understanding context.

Traditional security tools are deterministic and that is why they answer yes-or-no questions. Is there a vulnerability? Does this code contain a known issue? AI, by contrast, is non-deterministic. It doesn’t always give the same answer twice and that makes it unreliable for detection, but powerful for interpretation:

If you give it vulnerabilities and ask how severe this is, how exploitable it is that’s where AI becomes incredibly useful.

In other words, AI doesn’t replace security tools. It complements them, helping teams prioritize what actually matters.

AI doesn’t make attackers smarter, it makes attacks easier

So if AI isn’t fundamentally changing how attacks work, what is it changing? Scale.

AI has given script kiddies superpowers.

This phrase captures the shift precisely: AI doesn’t necessarily make attackers more skilled, it makes attacks easier to execute, faster to launch, and accessible to a much larger pool of people. But the core mechanics of attacks remain the same:

It’s not moving the bar up… it’s changing the scale.

And that, perhaps, is the most important takeaway. Because if the nature of attacks hasn’t fundamentally changed, neither has the foundation of defense. Good security hygiene. Strong access control. Protecting the software development lifecycle, Jackson points out.

The tools may evolve. The threats may accelerate. But the principles still hold.

The post AI Won’t Replace Security Tools – It’s Helping Them Prioritize Biggest Threats appeared first on ShiftMag.

20 developers share their unfiltered thoughts on AI

ShiftMag — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 14:43:26 +0000

When it comes to AI, few can say no – some rely on it heavily, while others remain skeptical:

I was probably the most skeptical person about AI, but when I started using it, I realized it’s just a tool.

Some even say, “It’s still not good enough for me. I’ll probably use it in a couple of years once it matures.”

But for many, AI is now essential: it speeds up tasks, supports research, and even offers crash courses in new technologies.

Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay.

AI opens a world of endless possibilities

Developers see AI’s potential in all sorts of ways. Some use it like a supercharged search engine to dig up code documentation. Others point to breakthroughs in medicine, like AI-assisted cancer screening or discovering new cures.

Before, you could only imagine trying something – now I can spend 20–30 minutes and see what’s possible.

DeepMind’s AlphaFold, which finally solved the decades-old protein folding problem, was a standout. “For me, that was the first time I thought, Oh man, this is really something.”

… and it isn’t here to take your job

Worried about AI taking over your job? Most developers aren’t. Sure, it can handle repetitive tasks, but it can’t take responsibility. “AI will never ask me why, only humans can challenge, understand, and question,” said a senior developer.

The general agreement: engineers, mathematicians, and doctors aren’t going anywhere. AI is a tool to help us, not a replacement for us. But, fears persist outside the office too: many worry that society is becoming too reliant on AI, leading to a loss of critical thinking.

Curiosity is the best defense against fear.

Still, there’s hope. Curiosity, participants agreed, is the antidote to fear. Engaging with AI directly (experimenting, learning, and testing its limits) reduces anxiety and keeps humans in control.

Curious what your colleagues think about AI? Watch the video, share your thoughts, and maybe even agree that the best use case could be… the Will Smith eating spaghetti videos.

The post 20 developers share their unfiltered thoughts on AI appeared first on ShiftMag.

Engineer Explains: Balancing compliance and agility

ShiftMag — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 12:16:02 +0000

A SOC framework is a set of protocols, best practices, and guidelines that provide a well-defined approach to building and managing a Security Operation Center (SOC).

It’s more like a recipe for cybersecurity success, defining the key elements and processes needed to protect your organizational data and other digital assets.

Or, as Dan Mazzella, Global Director of Software Development at Arcadis, puts it – for junior developers, it’s a way to understand the steps they need to take; for seniors, it means documenting the way they work; and for CTOs, it’s a protection against getting sued.

Watch Dan as he explains how software developers can balance SOC compliance and agility:

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

We’ve asked experienced engineers to share how they would explain some basic and some less basic tech terminology to different tech job titles or at three levels of experience — from junior developer to CTO.

Engineer Explains: How to Protect your Code from Supply Chain Attacks

ShiftMag — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 17:20:09 +0000

Attackers often target third-party libraries, tools, or dependencies, making it essential to ensure all components are secure to prevent data breaches, malicious code injection, and system disruptions.

Learn more about software supply chain security from Lucija Valentić, Software Threat Researcher at Reversing Labs:

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

Engineer Explains: Prompts Are a Programming Language

ShiftMag — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 14:43:39 +0000

Matheus Guimares, Senior Developer Advocate at AWS, explains how to use prompt engineering and agentic workflows to make your job as a software engineer easier.

He says prompts may be written in natural language, such as English, but software developers should consider them as part of a programming language used to interact with generative AI.

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

Engineer Explains: API Testing is Critical

ShiftMag — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 11:39:56 +0000

API testing is a process used to validate the functionality, reliability, performance, and security of application programming interfaces (APIs). It ensures that the API behaves as expected when integrated into applications by verifying that it returns the correct responses, handles errors properly, and supports required performance metrics.

Pooja Mistry, Developer Advocate at Postman‬ explains it more in detail:

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

Astro, the ultimate framework, explained

Antonija Bilic Arar — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 13:03:41 +0000

Developers love Astro because it gives them the performance benefits of static site generation while still allowing for modern interactivity when needed, all without a huge JavaScript bundle to worry about.

Plus, it’s super flexible and lets you use the tools you’re already familiar with, which makes development smoother and more fun.

Find out more about Astro from Elian Van Cutsen, software developer and DX support at Astro:

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

AI Engineering Does Not Equal Machine Learning

Antonija Bilic Arar — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 14:07:29 +0000

Tejas Kumar, AI DevRel Engineer at DataStax, thinks the main problem with AI engineering is that it lacks a formal definition. Many people confuse it with machine learning, research, and engineering, but those are completely different skills.

AI engineering does not require academia, experience with machine learning models, Python, or linear algebra: it’s just applying AI to solve problems.

According to Tejas, one can do this without ever training anything; instead, one can just make a network request to an AI API and use the returned output to solve problems.

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

Engineer Explains: Refactoring Allows Developers to be Wrong

Antonija Bilic Arar — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 17:25:34 +0000

“I like working in the nasties and ugliest code possible that also tends to be the most important code to business,” says Arlo Belshee, fractional CTO and Distinguished Engineer with 25+ years of experience in software engineering.

What better person to ask to explain legacy code refactoring than him?!

Junior developers starting their careers must know that refactoring is the way to modify an existing codebase to extend it and add new capabilities. This requires them to learn new techniques.

Arlo shares that his passion is restoring and revitalizing the core and most critical code elements for the business:

“As senior engineers, we know that we’re going to be wrong more than we’re going to be right. The most important thing in development, therefore, is that we make sure to create code that can be modified.”

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

Engineer Explains: Developers, you’ve been scammed about agile

Antonija Bilic Arar — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 09:55:33 +0000

Developers often think of agile software development as a set of tools, such as Jira, sprints, or story points, but agile is a way of thinking about software development.

Agile is a philosophy, says James Shore, VP Engineering at Open Sesame, agile software development consultant with more than 20 years of experience, and the author of The Art of Agile:

It’s the most misunderstood idea in software development!

There is an entire Agile Manifesto about the philosophy written more than twenty years ago (and it has stood the test of time, according to one of its authors!). But Shore emphasizes two key principles:

People over process
Adaptability over predictability

He says developers have been scammed about agile, and that’s why they tend not to like it.

CTOs often think that it’s the tools and training that make an organization agile, but Shore says it requires changing the culture because agile is not something you do; it’s something you become.

Video Archives - ShiftMag

AI Won’t Replace Security Tools – It’s Helping Them Prioritize Biggest Threats

Cybersecurity rests on two pillars: people and access

Brakes make race cars faster – and security works the same way

Security tools are here to stay, but AI gives them context

AI doesn’t make attackers smarter, it makes attacks easier

20 developers share their unfiltered thoughts on AI

AI opens a world of endless possibilities

… and it isn’t here to take your job

Curiosity is the best defense against fear.

Engineer Explains: Balancing compliance and agility

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

More videos from the Engineer Explains series:

Engineer Explains: How to Protect your Code from Supply Chain Attacks

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

More videos from the Engineer Explains series:

Engineer Explains: Prompts Are a Programming Language

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

More videos from the Engineer Explains series:

Engineer Explains: API Testing is Critical

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

More videos from the Engineer Explains series:

Astro, the ultimate framework, explained

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

More videos from the Engineer Explains series:

AI Engineering Does Not Equal Machine Learning

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

More videos from the Engineer Explains series:

Engineer Explains: Refactoring Allows Developers to be Wrong

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

More videos from the Engineer Explains series:

Engineer Explains: Developers, you’ve been scammed about agile

This video is a part of ShiftMag’s video series, Engineer Explains.

More videos from the Engineer Explains series: