Tenable to Host 'Swarm' Event at Black Hat 2026 to Foster Collaborative AI Security Agent Development
Tenable is organizing a collaborative build event at Black Hat 2026, dubbed 'Swarm,' to encourage the open-source development of AI security agents and combat predicted 'agent sprawl.'
The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence in enterprise environments is leading to a significant increase in the number of AI agents, a phenomenon Gartner predicts will result in over 150,000 agents per Fortune 500 company by 2028. Recognizing the potential for "agent sprawl" and the challenges it presents, Tenable is launching "Swarm," a hands-on build event scheduled for Black Hat 2026. This initiative aims to bring security practitioners together to collaboratively develop open-source AI security agents, fostering a collective defense strategy against evolving threats.
The "Swarm" event is designed to move beyond the current trend of isolated AI agent development. Many security teams are building agentic tools for tasks such as phishing triage and threat hunting independently, leading to duplicated efforts and missed opportunities for shared learning and impact. Tenable's event, sponsored by AWS and supported by Anthropic, will provide a platform for practitioners to build next-generation open-source agents, skills, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.
According to Gartner's projections, the average global Fortune 500 enterprise will see its AI agent count skyrocket from fewer than 15 in 2025 to over 150,000 by 2028. This exponential growth is expected to introduce significant "agent sprawl," IT complexity, and management challenges. Tenable observes that security teams are already leveraging agentic AI to automate time-consuming tasks, such as accelerating threat hunts and improving the efficiency of phishing email triage, effectively upskilling junior analysts to perform at a principal level.
Security practitioners are increasingly becoming builders of their own AI tools. Examples highlighted include a practitioner's n8n pipeline that automates phishing email analysis, reducing manual review time, and Tenable's own open-source SOC-Hunter, a Claude Code skill that streamlines proactive threat hunting. Additionally, a partner's AI Analyst, built with Claude Code skills and MCP servers, transforms plain-language requests into automated SOC workflows, compressing expert-level effort into minutes.
Despite the growing energy and talent in this space, the adoption of open-source agentic AI in cybersecurity remains uneven. Currently, only 27% of security practitioners feel their agentic AI deployments are mature, with most still in pilot phases. A significant issue is that much of this development occurs in isolation, leading to teams solving the same problems independently and missing out on the compounding benefits of collaborative development.
The "Swarm" event at Black Hat USA 2026, running from August 4-6, aims to address this by providing dedicated build time, expert office hours, and a collaborative environment. Participants will work on open-source AI security agents, MCP servers, skills, and playbooks for common workflows like triage, remediation, orchestration, and reporting. The event emphasizes that participants do not need to be career developers; anyone who can clearly describe a workflow can contribute.
Attendees are encouraged to bring a workflow they wish to automate and leave with a functional agent, along with a network of peers. The event will conclude with an awards ceremony on August 6, recognizing outstanding contributions. Space is limited, and registration is encouraged to secure a spot in what Tenable describes as "the room you want to be in" to shape the future of agentic AI security.
This initiative by Tenable underscores the growing importance of collaborative development in the AI security landscape, aiming to harness community efforts to build more robust and effective AI-driven defenses against sophisticated adversaries.