7AI Names Israel Barak CISO as Agentic AI Reshapes Security Operations

Cyber defense veteran joins 7AI to lead security operations as the company advances its People-Led, AI-Driven (PLAID) model for agentic security

BOSTON and SAN FRANCISCO, March 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 7AI, the company whose customers trust dynamic AI agents to get security work done at scale, today announced the appointment of Israel Barak as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). A veteran cybersecurity leader and former CISO at Cybereason, Barak joins 7AI as enterprises rapidly deploy AI agents into production to transform security operations and redefine how SOC teams investigate alerts and respond to threats.

Security leaders are increasingly reassessing how they run security operations centers (SOCs). Whether run internally or through an outsourced provider, most SOCs today remain fundamentally human-driven -- an approach that struggles to keep pace with the scale and speed of modern cyber threats. The appointment comes as security leaders recognize an AI inflection point in security operations.

“Organizations today operate under what I call the Security Operations Triangle,” said Israel Barak, CISO at 7AI. “If people primarily drive investigations in the SOC, organizations must compromise between quality, consistency, and cost. They can usually optimize for two, but not all three. Agentic AI changes that equation. It allows organizations to deliver high-quality investigations consistently and at scale while freeing human analysts to focus on proactive defense instead of endless alert management.”

Barak's decision to join 7AI is rooted in where he believes security is headed. "No mission is more inspiring for me than to reimagine and build the way future security programs, architecture, and operations will look as we leverage AI in more meaningful and impactful ways," said Barak. "I am excited to work closely with fellow defenders to shape and evolve this at 7AI."

The 7AI Agentic AI SOC Platform uses autonomous AI agents to investigate security alerts, correlate signals across security tools, and drive investigation outcomes in minutes rather than hours—allowing SOC teams to operate at a scale that human-driven models cannot match. In the last year, 7AI agents have processed more than 2.5 million alerts and completed over 650,000 security investigations in production environments. It reduces investigation time from hours to minutes and eliminates 95–99 percent of false positives for enterprise customers.

7AI delivers these outcomes through its PLAID (People-Led, AI-Driven) operating model, which pairs autonomous AI agents with dedicated AI security engineers who work directly with customers to integrate agents into their existing security environments. Instead of forcing security teams to adapt to a new platform, 7AI works alongside customers to deploy AI agents across their existing tools, data sources, and workflows.

Enterprises Turn to 7AI to Operate Security Workflows

Several enterprise customers are already using 7AI PLAID ELITE in production—a managed, AI-driven model where 7AI’s security experts operate the platform on behalf of customers to deliver continuous investigation, overwatch, and expert response at scale. Many organizations turn to 7AI after cycling through multiple outsourced SOC service providers, seeking faster investigations, more consistent outcomes, and full operational visibility.

“For years, the industry has tried to solve the SOC problem by adding more tools or outsourcing the work to MDR providers,” said Lior Div, co-founder and CEO at 7AI. “But the real breakthrough comes from changing how SOCs get work done. AI agents enable investigations at machine scale while human defenders focus on problems that require real expertise. Israel brings exactly the kind of operational leadership needed to make that vision real for customers.”

In his role as CISO, Barak will build and lead the security organization that supports customers adopting the 7AI model. This includes expanding the company’s team of security experts and AI security engineers who work directly with enterprises to operationalize AI-driven investigations, helping organizations transition from human-driven SOC workflows to agentic security operations.

Barak brings more than two decades of cybersecurity leadership spanning enterprise security operations, cyber warfare infrastructure, threat intelligence, and incident response. His background includes developing proprietary security technologies and training teams to defend against advanced threat actors -- work that helped shape the modern incident detection and response market. As CISO at Cybereason, he led global security strategy and worked closely with organizations defending against sophisticated cyber threats and nation-state activity.

“The goal isn’t to remove humans from security operations,” Barak added. “It’s to eliminate the mechanical work that keeps talented analysts trapped in alert queues. When AI agents handle investigations, security teams can finally focus on the work that strengthens security: threat hunting, proactive defense, and innovation.”

For more perspective from Israel Barak about why he joined 7AI, please visit the 7AI blog.

About 7AI 

7AI customers trust dynamic AI agents to get security work done at scale. The company's AI agents autonomously investigate security alerts, proven in production at Fortune 500 scale, eliminating the work humans shouldn't be doing, so security teams can finally do human work: strategic threat hunting, proactive defense, and the work that actually protects organizations. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Boston, 7AI is aggressively growing its team across AI Security Engineering and go-to-market roles. Learn more at 7ai.com. 

Media Contact 

Ted Weismann for 7AI 
7AI@marketbridge.com 

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fa557a49-d79b-4573-9e6c-e03d84ae4c97