Context Is the New Moat
Recently, Block cut 40% of its workforce. Nearly 4,000 people. Jack Dorsey said AI and smaller teams are enabling a fundamentally different way to run a company. The stock jumped 24%.
That is not a layoff story. That is a signal.
The question every security leader should be asking is not whether AI will reshape their organization. It is whether their environment has the context to absorb that change safely.
“Speed without context is not transformation. It is exposure.”
The Threat Landscape Is Not Waiting
Group-IB's latest High-Tech Crime Trends Report names supply chain attacks as the dominant force reshaping the global threat landscape. Attackers are targeting trusted vendors, SaaS platforms, and managed service providers to gain inherited access across entire ecosystems.
The World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 frames the environment in three forces: AI adoption, geopolitical fragmentation, and cyber inequity. The talent gap is widening. Budgets are increasing but not fast enough. Complexity is outpacing headcount.
What Block Tells Us About Context
When you remove 40% of your workforce and bet on AI to fill the gap, you are making an implicit assumption: that your systems and tooling have enough context to operate without the humans who used to carry it in their heads.
For most organizations, that is a losing bet. Offboarding thousands of people at a company processing millions of financial transactions introduces real risk. Identity lifecycle gaps. Orphaned access. Institutional knowledge walking out the door. Threat actors watching the news and targeting the chaos.
The companies that will navigate this are the ones that have already built persistent environmental understanding into their infrastructure.
What We're Building at Surf AI
Our Context Graph continuously maps relationships, behavior, and history across an organization. It gives specialized AI agents the environmental awareness they need to detect meaningful risk, validate intent, and execute remediation safely.
Not more dashboards. Not more alerts. Persistent understanding that enables action at the speed the business demands.
Join Us at RSA: The Surf Shack
We are bringing the Surf AI experience to RSA Conference, March 23 through 25.
The Surf Shack is located directly across from the Moscone Center. Stop by for breakfast, lunch, or happy hour. Meet the team. See the platform.
📍 825 Mission St, San Francisco, CA · March 23–25, 2026
Reserve your spot at the Surf Shack →
RSA Calendar of Events
- Monday, March 23: Breakfast, Lunch, and Happy Hour at the Surf Shack
- Tuesday, March 24: Breakfast, Lunch, and Happy Hour at the Surf Shack · Yonesy speaking at RSAC
- Wednesday, March 25: Breakfast, Lunch, and Happy Hour at the Surf Shack · Morning Burn at OrangeTheory Fitness
Catch Me at RSAC — Tuesday, March 24
1:15 PM — Getting Out of Security: Is the CISO Role Doomed? [CSO-T09]
The CISO role is under pressure. Regulatory exposure, shrinking D&O coverage, accountability without authority. This session tackles the hard question head on: why experienced CISOs are moving toward fractional, advisory, and board roles, and what that shift means for the future of security leadership.
2:25 PM — Context is King: Building Agentic Defense for an Agentic Threat Landscape [BOF3-T10]
Agents without context are just faster automation. Adversaries already know this. This Birds of a Feather session is a candid, practitioner-led conversation on what it actually takes to build defenses that match the threat. Chatham House rules. No recordings. Come ready to engage.
Wednesday at RSA: The Morning Burn
We are hosting a group workout at OrangeTheory Fitness on Wednesday, March 25 from 7:00–8:15 AM. No panels. No pitch decks. Just a shared workout followed by breakfast burritos and coffee. The best conversations happen outside the conference hall.
Space is limited and approval-only. Register here →
Looking Forward
Last month I wrote that hesitation is the new vulnerability. This month, the Block story proves it from a different angle. Context is not a feature. It is a moat.
We are building it at Surf AI.
See you at RSA.
Yonesy Núñez
CISO, Surf AI
Yonesy Núñez is a five-time CISO with over two decades of experience securing some of the world's most complex financial institutions, including DTCC, Jack Henry, and Wells Fargo, and currently serves as CISO of Surf AI.