BSides Vancouver 2026

AI has democratized "expertise." Developers are using LLMs to ship complex (and potentially insecure) code at record speeds, while security professionals are using them to generate generic policy bloat. The result? A "Dead Internet" corporate culture where nobody trusts anyone, volume replaces value, and friction is at an all-time high.

As a software engineer turned security advisor, I have lived on both sides of this divide. I used to view security as the "Department of No" - a blocker to my velocity. Now, I realize the friction wasn't technical; it was a failure of influence.

This talk explores why Human Influence is the ultimate security control that AI cannot fake. We will move beyond tricks and focus on authentic engineering alignment. I will share how to cut through the "AI slop" to build genuine trust with skepticism-heavy developers, how to translate technical debt into business risk for executives, and how to stop "generating" security and start negotiating it.