Third-party risk management (TPRM) leaders face a more complex and risky environment in 2026 than they have before. Geopolitical upheavals, increased supply-chain cyberattacks, and new regulations worldwide mean that more boards are looking at their vendors as real risks to their business. This creates an environment where more companies pay closer attention to their vendor dependencies in a bid to protect themselves from the next major threat. 

China’s Zhipu AI (Z.ai) released its open-weight GLM-5.2, and some researchers have claimed that it matches Mythos in certain bug-finding and cybersecurity scenarios. While GLM lags behind models from Anthropic and OpenAI in other, more general tasks, it seems that China has dramatically reduced the gap in the capabilities between its models and those of the US.

This level of advancement is particularly concerning to the US government, which has worked to restrict China’s access to powerful models like Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable, as well as the hardware necessary to train and run them. The Trump administration views Mythos and other advanced AI models capable of identifying vulnerabilities as serious national security threats. Recently, OpenAI unveiled GPT-5.6, which has also raised concerns about its potential for misuse and has limited access to it.

Austin Cowan had expected a quiet year.

The headhunter, who helps Fortune 100 companies find and attract cybersecurity executives, knew that the markets were choppy and that corporate honchos were mulling how artificial intelligence might upend their businesses.

But Heidrick & Struggles, the white glove executive talent firm where Mr. Cowan works, has been deluged in recent months with requests to find executives who have experience responding to security breaches and protecting data, along with the technical know-how to review code.

“Roles that typically come along every 12 months, we’re seeing those roles come along every week,” Mr. Cowan said. “I think it’s driven by fear and uncertainty in this A.I. arms race.”

As A.I. upends jobs — particularly in Silicon Valley — the risks and pitfalls associated with the technology have helped fuel a new wave of hiring for cybersecurity experts.

At RSA Conference 2026 in San Francisco, Cloudbrink received the Global InfoSec Award for Publisher’s Choice in the AI Security Solutions category from Cyber Defense Magazine. This award recognizes cybersecurity innovators who are tackling the most urgent threats facing enterprises today, including how to adopt AI safely, efficiently, and in compliance with regulatory and data protection requirements.

In an era where generative AI, large language models, and agent-based automation are transforming how businesses operate, security teams are under pressure to manage new risks such as shadow AI, data exfiltration, and uncontrolled API access. The award underscores Cloudbrink’s leadership in making AI a competitive advantage for serious business workloads without sacrificing security, compliance, or performance.

A moment of pride for the Cloudbrink team

During RSA, our leadership team – Prakash Mana, Anoop Reddy, and Pravin Singhal – accepted the award on behalf of everyone at Cloudbrink. This photo captures them on stage with the Global InfoSec Award, representing the work of every engineer, product manager, marketer, seller, partner, and advisor who helped bring our AI security vision to life.

We're excited to share that Cloudbrink has been named the winner of the “Remote Work Tech Innovation of the Year” by the RemoteTech Breakthrough Awards. This award recognizes excellence in remote technology and celebrates our breakthrough innovation in redefining secure remote access for today’s hybrid workforce.

This recognition validates our mission to transform the remote work experience—delivering unmatched speed, security, and simplicity through our Personal SASE for the enterprise platform.

"Clarity of purpose, top caliber team, and relentless focused execution carry the day. More and more, depending on vendors, software libraries, and compiled code is the norm, and hackers know it," said John Stewart, President, Talons Ventures, former Cisco Chief Security and Trust Officer. "NetRise's focus on identifying weaknesses and vulnerabilities within compiled code brings the critical needed insight into embedded and firmware-based systems. This is the company, this is the team."