The attacker is already in the lead.

Armadin, Co-Founder and Chief Offensive Security Officer, Evan Pe, told me at the Cyber event held on Wednesday at Fortune, Lightspeed, and AWS, that this is the current reality in the field of network security.

“I truly believe that attackers are now in the upper hand,” said Pe, listing recent cybersecurity vulnerabilities that have drawn attention. “Just look at the past few weeks: Citrix, BeyondTrust, PHP, Node.js – all of them appeared within a period of three to four weeks. These are unprecedented new threats... With the help of AI, attackers can now scan the entire external attack surface of a Fortune 500 company in just a few hours, covering over 10,000 systems that are exposed to the internet. It’s simply beyond human capability to achieve such a scale... What we used to take a year to complete in a few hours, they can do now. The scale and speed are unmatched.”

Speed, scale, and high risk have become the main themes of the cybersecurity industry in 2026. This is evident from the widespread discussions sparked by Mythos, to the attacks launched by OpenAI proxies against Hugging Face.

Lior Div, co-founder and CEO of 7AI, said during a discussion session: "We are living within a continuum... The intervals between events are getting shorter and shorter, and shorter still."

Yesterday's event held at the New York Stock Exchange marked the release of the Fortune 2027 Cyber 60 list, which features the most innovative startups in the field of cybersecurity. The selected companies include regulars that have long been on this list, such as the open-source security giant Chainguard; there are also newcomers to the list, like the cutting-edge AI security firm Irregular; and there are honor-nominated companies, such as the data breach protection startup Jazz. Bringing these startups together conveys a clear message: AI represents the best tools that attackers could wish for.

"The most important point is that attackers face no obstacles at all," said Nick Schneider, the CEO of the cybersecurity unicorn Arctic Wolf, from the stage. "An organization has to go through a change control process, obtain a budget, persuade its team, and convince the board of directors. Many organizations are not built for AI from the start, nor are they designed to operate at the speed of villains. Villains don't care: they will launch attacks on a large scale, and if they gain nothing from it, it's fine; they will just move on to the next target."

In short, our digital world has been permanently changed – and there is still a great deal of work to be done ahead.

"We live in a very fragile world," said the Div of 7AI. "Everything is fragile; you can attack anything. The idea that one has an invulnerable boundary is simply not tenable."

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle

X: @ agarfinks

Email: alexandra.garfinkle @ fortune.com

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Joey Abrams is responsible for organizing the transaction section of today's news newsletter.

Venture Capital

• San Francisco-based cloud and AI security software provider Upwind has completed a $400 million Series C financing round. Bessemer Venture Partners led the investment, with Greylock Partners, Cyberstarts, Craft, Salesforce Ventures, and others also participating.
• Foundry Robotics, headquartered in Emeryville, California, has completed a $100 million Series A financing round. The company builds and operates autonomous assembly factories for the defense and commercial industries. Marlinspike Partners led the investment, with Khosla Ventures, Red Glass Ventures, and others also participating.
• New York-based Lumaril has completed a $66 million Series A financing round. The company develops AI software for optimizing industrial production. Elad Gil led the investment, with Felicis, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Pax Ventures, Lux Capital, and General Catalyst also participating in the round.
• Plato, headquartered in San Francisco, has completed a $16 million Series A financing round. The company develops work scenario simulation tools for AI training and evaluation. Nava Ventures led the investment, with Gradient Ventures and others also participating.
• Rocker completed a financing round of $12.9 million. The company develops AI assistants for corporate employees. Greycroft led the investment, with Anthropic, Menlo Ventures, Matchstick, Stripe as well as angel investors also participating in the round.
• Blue Arbor Technologies, headquartered in Grass Lake in Michigan, has completed a $10.5 million Series A financing round. The company develops neuromuscular interfaces for prosthetic control. Ottobock led the investment.
• Sava, headquartered in New York City, has completed a $10 million seed financing round. The company provides trust management services driven by AI. Gradient Ventures led the investment, with Y Combinator, SV Angel, and others also participating.
• Omabit, headquartered in San Francisco, has completed a $2 million seed round of financing. The company develops AI software for scientific analysis and drug development decision-making. Bright Ventures led the investment.

Private Equity

• Numeracle, which provides commercial identity verification and communication trust software, has completed a $28 million growth financing round, led by Edison Partners.
• OceanSound Partners supported Burns Engineering's acquisition of PRVN Consultants. The latter is an engineering company located in Iowa City, Iowa, serving the regional energy, power generation, and cogeneration markets. The transaction amount was not disclosed.
• Equiti, which is supported by GTCR and Heritage Group, has acquired Lexi AI. The latter is a developer of medical language translation software known as AI and is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed.
• Exponent agrees to acquire Crane Building Services & Utilities. The latter is a manufacturer of engineering fluid control products located in Ipswich, UK, serving the utilities and building systems industry. The transaction amount has not been disclosed.
• Ambienta has acquired Metallurgica Irpina. The latter is a manufacturer of steel wires, metal mesh, and fencing systems located in Ariano Irpino, Italy, with products used in infrastructure, industrial, and agricultural applications. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed.
• Orangewood Partners has acquired a majority stake in Refrigerated Solutions Group. The latter is headquartered in Hudson, Wisconsin, and produces commercial walk-in refrigerators, freezers, and cooling systems. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed.
• Platinum Equity agrees to acquire EDP. The latter is a propane and light fuel distributor headquartered in Chicago, serving residential, commercial, and agricultural customers. The transaction amount has not been disclosed.

Exit

• CoStar Group agrees to acquire Vexcel for approximately $730 million in cash. The latter is headquartered in Graz, Austria, and provides aerial imagery and geospatial data. The seller is Riverwood Capital.

Characters

• Eclipse, a venture capital firm located in Palo Alto, has promoted Ryan Gibson and Michael Laser to partners.
• New York-based private equity firm Franchise Equity Partners has hired Chris Holzshu as its operating partner. He previously served as the executive vice president at Lithia & Driveway.