Cyber threats have evolved through distinct eras — from vandalism, to theft, to war — and much of today's technology infrastructure, including systems Microsoft built by putting Windows on the internet before it was ready, was designed for the pre-AI era and isn't secure enough for the AI world.
Ben Horowitz traces cyber threats evolving from vandalism to theft to war, using Microsoft's early internet-era Windows as an example of infrastructure built before it was ready — and argues today's legacy tech is similarly unprepared for the AI era. ✦ AI generated
Ben Horowitz · a16z Podcast · 2026-07-03 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 35:44
originally cyber hacking was vandalism, right? Like, okay, I'm going to mess up your PC. Then, you know, with the internet, it became theft and now it's war. And the great thing when it went from vandalism to theft, the vandalism company, Microsoft, is one who created all the theft opportunities by putting Windows on the internet when it wasn't ready to be on the internet.
verbatim transcript · starts at 35:44
35:44incorporate these as well. >> And it's kind of very tricky from an industry standpoint because like originally cyber hacking was vandalism, right? Like, okay, I'm going to mess up your PC. Then, you know, with the internet, it became theft and now it's war. Uh, and >> that evolution kind of, I think, snuck up on people. And so, and we've seen, yeah, I mean, the great thing when it
36:10went from vandalism to theft, the the vandalism company, Microsoft, is one who created all the theft opportunities by putting Windows on the internet when it wasn't ready to be on the internet um because it wasn't built for that kind of idea. And uh you know, with ActiveX and all these kinds of technologies that let people come into the internet and get right to your machine. Uh, and I think
36:33that we're kind of in a period like that where we've got all this technology that was built in the pre-AII era that's not nearly secure enough for the AI world. And um, and we're going to have to make that transition. >> Yeah. There's a 20 year legacy of code that has to be tackled. >> Yeah. >> Nope. >> That AI is increasingly >> many opportunities. Yes. Many
36:55opportunities. Yeah. >> Many many. >> Um, awesome. Well, maybe in closing, so Ben, I I know the number one question we often get when we're visiting different countries is how do you recreate Silicon Valley locally, right? That's let's like they want the ingredients to it. And there there's a few components to success that have enabled Silicon Valley, but there's also the the proposition, what if the internet is
37:16actually Silicon Valley or this the the actual Silicon Valley just distributed. So >> yeah. Yeah. >> I don't think that's true, by the way. And like they think that's a happy talk. If you you know like one thing you learn when you go to different countries is they're very different. Like the laws are different, the policies are different, the governance are different. And that's why you know America has
37:38continued to be special. We've had the internet now for quite a long time and like that's absolutely not the case. >> Uh so like so what is going on? And and by the way, I wish we could bring uh some of our own uh policy makers on those trips so they could hear people say we want Silicon Valley before they keep trying to wreck us. Not all of many of our policy makers are