NEC and NEC Security to Sponsor 'Hardening Designers Conference 2026 – Agentic Collapse (The Collapse Brought by Autonomous Agents)'

NEC and NEC Security will participate as sponsoring partners in the 'Hardening Project,' an initiative aimed at advancing security hardening practices and maximizing their value. At the online event 'Hardening Designers Conference 2026,' to be held from July 2 (Thu) to July 4 (Sat), 2026, NEC will present its vulnerability management operations and organizational framework, share response case studies, and discuss approaches to addressing the challenges posed by the rapid and widespread emergence of vulnerabilities in the AI era. Additionally, the session will focus on consent phishing attacks that bypass multi-factor authentication targeting Microsoft Entra ID/Microsoft 365, covering their mechanisms, demonstrations, and countermeasures.

Furthermore, Shinichi Fuchigami, Corporate Executive CISO at NEC and a member of the Hardening Project's executive committee, will speak at Day 3, Session 5: 'C-Executive Decision-Making and Agents.'

<Hardening Designers Conference 2026 Event Overview>

Dates: July 2 (Thu) – July 4 (Sat), 2026

Organizer: Hardening Project Executive Committee

Format: Online

Details: https://wasforum.jp/2026/06/hardening-designers-conference-2026/

<Tech Showcase>

【Day 2】July 3 (Fri) Tech Briefing

Rethinking Vulnerability Management in the AI Era Based on NEC's Practices

This session will examine NEC's vulnerability management operations and organizational structure, present case examples of responses to vulnerabilities in systems provided by NEC, and explore strategies for tackling the challenges of rapidly and widely emerging vulnerabilities in the AI era. The presentation will introduce initiatives such as ensuring comprehensiveness through SBOMs and prioritization leveraging NEC's intelligence, and share insights on potential future directions in response to the question: 'Is it possible to address every vulnerability?'

Presenter: Kotono Iwata, Vulnerability Management Group, Cybersecurity Technology Headquarters, NEC

Biography: Engaged in vulnerability management for systems provided by the NEC Group.

Consent Phishing Targeting Microsoft Entra ID/Microsoft 365

As multi-factor authentication becomes widespread, attacks exploiting methods to bypass it are increasing. This presentation will focus specifically on consent phishing attacks that bypass multi-factor authentication for Microsoft Entra ID/Microsoft 365. It will cover the mechanisms, a live demonstration, countermeasures, and introduce ConsentFix, a derivative technique, as a reference.

Presenter: Takuya Kirishita, Forensic Analysis Group, Cybersecurity Technology Headquarters, NEC

Biography: Engaged in incident response/forensics and penetration testing.

<Conference Day Presentation>

【Day 3】July 4 (Sat) Conference Day, Session 5: 'C-Executive Decision-Making and Agents'

Have AI agents disrupted the compass of CISOs? This panel brings together CISOs and Office of CISO leaders from various industries to discuss what has changed—and what has remained unchanged—before and after the emergence of AI agents. The session aims to cultivate the ability to distinguish between hype and substance.

Lead: Yuki Kadowaki

Panelists: Shinichi Fuchigami (NEC / OWASP OKINAWA), Ryotaro Okada (Asterisk Research / OWASP Japan), Yuki Kadowaki (Nara Institute of Science and Technology)

<Related Information>

NEC Security Blog: NEC security engineers publish technical topics every Friday.

https://jpn.nec.com/cybersecurity/blog/index.html?cid=secpr260629

NEC Security Corporation

https://www.nec-security.co.jp/