Marcus Carey
Principal Research Scientist
ReliaQuest
About
Marcus J. Carey is a Principal Research Scientist at ReliaQuest, where he works at the intersection of AI, adversary simulation, and security operations to help large organizations understand how attackers really think and how defenders really win. A U.S. Navy cryptology veteran, Marcus has spent more than two decades in offensive security, digital forensics, and incident response with organizations including NSA, DC3, DIA, and DARPA. He founded Threatcare, an early breach‑and‑attack simulation platform acquired by ReliaQuest, and his work focuses on turning real tradecraft into repeatable capabilities instead of conference theater. Marcus is the creator of the Tribe of Hackers book series, which has helped thousands of practitioners and future founders navigate careers, leadership, and company‑building in cybersecurity. His current research explores “AI versions” of operators and agentic workflows, proving that hackers, defenders, and builders who understand both cyber and code now operate with a structural, and very real, unfair advantage.
Sessions
Unfair Advantage: How AI Supercharges Hackers, Defenders, and Founders
What you will learn:
In 2026, anyone with code and cyber skills walks into the game with an unfair advantage. A generation ago, you needed a Fortune‑500‑sized R&D budget to build serious security technology; today, small, focused teams can ship AI‑powered security products that rival legacy vendors and realistically chase unicorn outcomes. In this session, Marcus J. Carey, Principal Research Scientist at ReliaQuest and creator of the Tribe of Hackers series, breaks down how AI shifts the balance of power for red teams, blue teams, and founders. We’ll walk through concrete AI workflows that amplify recon, exploit research, detection engineering, purple teaming, and incident response—and how turning those workflows into product is the new unfair advantage. This talk is built for people who ship, patch, and respond, not people pitching slideware.