As an anti-DEI movement continues to unfold across the country, driven by the Trump administration, some cybersecurity leaders are keeping their fingers crossed it doesn’t impede the sector’s ongoing efforts to funnel in more underrepresented voices into the workforce.

Since assuming office in January, President Trump has taken swift action to dismantle DEI initiatives—which the new White House describes as “illegal” and “immoral”—across the federal government. In the early days of his presidency, Trump shut down federal diversity offices and signed several executive orders intended to dismantle DEI programs, moves that have been met with legal challenges.

Many corporations are following suit and turning the page on prior DEI commitments. Target, PepsiCo, and Walmart are just a few of the companies that made the move to scale back their DEI policies and programs in recent months.

Growth stunt. The efforts may have a ripple effect on the cybersecurity industry’s talent pipeline. Karl Mattson, CISO at Endor Labs, told IT Brew that the changes have been top of mind for the CISO community, which is continuing to “react responsibly.” Mattson worries that the progress made in addressing gaps in representation across the industry, a longtime problem, may be upended by the rollbacks happening across the country.

“There’s a worry that we’re going to slide backwards,” Mattson said. “That would be tragic.”

Read the rest here.—BM

Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft—they all have one thing in common: Irish eyes are smiling on them.

The tech companies are among the largest US firms with European headquarters in Ireland, the EU member nation that has turned itself into an economic powerhouse over the past few decades.

Hurling. Ireland’s tech industry has long benefitted from the country’s generous tax code—which, at 12.5%, entices US multinationals to move their base of operations to the nation—and a young, agile workforce that’s familiar with the demands of the cyber economy.

Ivan Houlihan, SVP for West Coast US at Ireland’s Investment and Development Agency (IDA), told IT Brew that the tech presence in the country is due in large part to a careful strategy of investment and education.

“For the last 75 years, we’ve been attracting foreign direct investment to Ireland,” Houlihan said, adding, “what we do today is we partner with companies internationally to help them build out presence in Ireland.”

Read more here.—EH

Microsoft is banking on autonomous AI agents to help cybersecurity teams cut down on tedious, routine tasks.

On Monday, Microsoft announced 11 new AI agents, five built by third-party partners and six by the tech giant itself, will be available for preview on its Security Copilot service starting in April. Microsoft launched Security Copilot, its GenAI security solution, last year.

The new agents will help to address specific pain points faced by cybersecurity teams. One agent is designed to triage phishing alerts and point out possible false alarms in Microsoft Defender. Another one can help to generate relevant threat intelligence for an organization. Other functionalities include:

• A task optimizer agent, built by cybersecurity AI platform Fletch, that will aid organizations in prioritizing more pressing cyberthreat alerts
• A vulnerability remediation agent that can prioritize vulnerabilities and remediation tasks in Microsoft Intune
• A privacy breach response agent, built by software company OneTrust, that can analyze data breaches and assist privacy teams in adhering with regulatory requirements

Keep reading here.—BM