When AI Becomes the Attacker: Vanderbilt’s Playbook for Generative AI-Initiated Cyberthreats in Higher Education

Wednesday, April 29, 2026 | 11:30AM–12:15PM PT | California Ballroom B, Second Floor
Session Type: Breakout Session
Delivery Format: Presentation/Panel
In this interactive working session, Michael Browning, senior director of Cybersecurity at Vanderbilt University, will unpack how generative AI now initiates cyberthreats against higher education—from AI-authored business email compromise and account-takeover campaigns to automated reconnaissance and phishing-as-a-service powered by large language models. Framed around Generative AI Cybersecurity & Privacy for Higher Education, Michael will connect recent Vanderbilt incidents to emerging attacker tradecraft, showing how threat actors are using AI to scale targeting, improve social engineering, and evade legacy email and identity defenses. Attendees will see how Vanderbilt is extending behavioral, identity-aware controls to detect AI-generated signals. The focus is on concrete, repeatable lessons for EDU CISOs and CIOs: what actually worked in a complex research university, which safeguards moved the risk needle, and how peers can rapidly adapt their own controls, playbooks, and partnerships to stay ahead of generative AI-initiated threats.

Presenters

  • Michael Browning

    Senior Director, Security Engineering and Operations, Vanderbilt University

  • Zach Oxman

    Area VP - SLED US, Abnormal AI

Resources & Downloads

  • When AI Becomes the Attacker Vanderbilts Playbook for Generative AIInitiated Cyberthreats in

    Updated on 4/18/2026