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In an October 2026 Reddit AMA, IBM Security’s Jeff Crume and Guido Crucq discussed breach response times, defensive uses of AI, access to breach data, and skills for a career in AI security. Their replies offer useful perspectives, but the thread is a discussion—not a reproduction of the Cost of a Data Breach Report. It identifies no report edition and provides no headline cost, methodology, or detailed findings.
What the AMA says about breach response times
Jeff Crume said that, over roughly the preceding decade, mean time to identify a breach had generally been about 200 days, while mean time to contain it had been more than 60 days. These are approximate figures from Crume’s October 2026 AMA reply, not independently verified results or a stated latest benchmark from the report. He also said he did not have data breaking those timelines out by breach vector.
The two measures describe different stages: identifying a breach means recognizing that it has occurred; containment means taking steps to limit its impact. Crume’s comments suggest that detection and response can both take substantial time, but the thread does not provide enough detail to compare causes, industries, or types of attack.
How the guests see AI helping defenders—and where risk remains
AI for scalable security analysis
Guido Crucq described AI as useful for fast, consistent analysis at scale in security tools and security operations center (SOC) work. That is a description of potential use, not evidence in the thread of measured improvements in detection or response.
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Agents need safeguards
Crume offered researching indicators of compromise and recommending a response as a possible use for an AI agent. He also warned that prompt injection could hijack an agent and turn it against defenders, saying “caution should be used in letting agents automate response as they could be hijacked and used against the defenders.” The practical distinction is between using an agent to analyze and recommend actions and allowing it to carry them out: the AMA raises the risk of automation but does not specify a tested control design or an autonomy threshold.
What the AMA establishes about access to breach data
Asked about raw breach datasets, Crucq said, “I am not aware of such datasets,” and added that data intended for publication would need to be scrubbed and anonymized. This describes his knowledge; it does not establish that no raw datasets exist. The thread does not identify a public dataset or provide details about the data behind the report.
The AMA introduction says the report examines hundreds of real-world breaches, what drives their costs, how attack trends evolve, and which investments may make a difference. It gives no exact breach count, sample period, report edition, or cost result, so the thread alone cannot support a more precise account of the report’s findings.
Skills to build for a career in AI security
Understand the system, then study how it fails
Crume’s advice was to “first understand how it should WORK, then start thinking about how it will FAIL.” For someone entering AI security, that points to learning how AI systems are designed and used before examining their failure modes. He also emphasized the confidentiality, integrity, and availability triad—the security goals of protecting information from unauthorized access, preserving its accuracy, and keeping systems and data usable.
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Connect technical controls to business risk
Crucq emphasized architecture, controls, and governance, along with the ability to place cyber risk and security investment in a business context. Together, the guests’ advice spans both technical understanding and organizational judgment: know how a system works and can fail, and understand how security decisions relate to the business. Neither guest named a particular course or certification.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What this AMA can—and cannot—tell readers
The event is a useful snapshot of two IBM Security practitioners’ views on breach timelines, AI’s defensive potential, data access, and career preparation. It is not a complete analysis of long-term attack trends or a substitute for the report itself: the thread does not reproduce the report’s methodology, edition, headline breach cost, or underlying tables. Read the timeline figures as Crume’s approximate AMA comments and the AI discussion as expert perspective rather than measured effectiveness results.
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