Fear of Surveillance Leads to Increased VPN Use
A new PasswordManager survey shows that 36% of U.S. adults now use virtual private networks, making VPNs mainstream. Privacy concerns dominate, with 35% of users seeking to hide activity from the government and 65% aiming to block advertiser tracking. A sizable share also rely on VPNs to bypass state, employer or national content blocks, while 64% employ them for routine browsing and financial transactions. Overall, 80% of Americans express worry about government surveillance, a sentiment shared across the political spectrum.
Document Protection: Why Hybrid Storage Is the Future of Security
Companies are increasingly leveraging AI, which boosts productivity but also escalates sophisticated cyber threats. Digital document storage provides speed and collaboration, yet its exposure to breaches forces a security rethink. Experts recommend a hybrid model that keeps regularly accessed files...
Cracking Cyber’s Talent Gap Challenge
Rob Lee argues that the cybersecurity talent gap is less about a lack of candidates and more about outdated hiring practices and misaligned role definitions. Companies often demand senior experience for junior positions and narrow technical criteria, sidelining adaptable talent...
AI Security and Forensic Accounting: Protecting Financial Systems in an Automated World
Artificial intelligence is reshaping both security operations and financial processes, but the rapid automation of accounting, payments, and vendor management is expanding the attack surface for AI‑enabled fraud. Threat actors now use AI to craft convincing phishing attacks, impersonate executives,...
The Great Security Culture Shift: Building a Proactive Defense in an Era of Advanced Threats and Social Engineering
The article highlights a surge in DLL side‑loading attacks delivered through LinkedIn Messenger, where malicious PDFs bypass traditional endpoint defenses. It reveals that 66% of malware infections occur on devices already equipped with endpoint protection, exposing gaps in reactive security...
Would You Trust an AI Pentester to Work Solo?
Security leaders face mounting pressure to outpace threats while accelerating AI adoption, yet only 36% are satisfied with current pentesting providers. AI‑powered pentesting promises unprecedented speed and scale, scanning massive codebases in minutes, but it falls short on contextual judgment,...
Brian Harrell — Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2026
Brian Harrell, former DHS Assistant Secretary and current Chief Security Officer at Avangrid Energy, is highlighted as a top cybersecurity leader for 2026. He oversees a converged security portfolio that includes IT/OT cyber, physical security, privacy, fire protection, and business...
Dr. Bryan Stoker — Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2026
Dr. Bryan Stoker, a third‑degree Taekwondo black belt and former NSA senior leader, has become Chief Technology Officer at Dispersive Holdings. He spent over 40 years at the NSA and three years as USCYBERCOM J2 technical director, where he built...
Why Security Teams Can No Longer Ignore Recruitment Fraud
Recruitment fraud is emerging as a critical enterprise security threat, driven by AI‑powered social engineering that can convincingly impersonate recruiters and hiring workflows. Labor market volatility, highlighted by 1.17 million U.S. job cuts in 2025, has amplified the urgency and exposure...
4 Data Security Incidents to Know About (February 2026)
February 2026 saw four notable data security incidents. Inadequate redactions of the Jeffrey Epstein files exposed roughly 100 victims, including personal contacts and nude images. Updates to the 2024 Conduent breach revealed secondary leaks affecting customers such as Volvo Group North America...
Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: Preparing for the Quantum Hangover
Quantum‑era risk is no longer a distant theory; adversaries are already harvesting encrypted data to decrypt later when quantum computers mature. This "harvest‑now, decrypt‑later" model threatens long‑life information across government, finance, healthcare and private‑sector IP. CEOs must shift focus from...
How AI Could Impact Tax Season Security This Year
The IRS Criminal Investigation report shows tax‑related financial crimes hit $4.5 billion in FY 2025, a 111.8 % jump from the prior year, signaling heightened risk this tax season. Cybercriminals are leveraging generative AI to produce hyper‑personalized phishing, deepfake voice and video scams,...
AI-Generated Image-Based Harm Is Becoming a Security Issue — Organizations Must Prepare
AI‑generated image‑based harm is emerging as a fast‑moving security threat that targets students, employees and the public, causing immediate reputational and emotional damage. Existing moderation tools and legal frameworks struggle to keep pace with synthetic imagery that can be created...
Human-Related Security Risks Rose 90% in 2025
A KnowBe4 report reveals human‑related security incidents surged 90% in 2025, driven largely by social‑engineering attacks and employee error. Email‑based threats grew 57%, with 64% of organizations hit by external attacks exploiting staff inboxes. Human mistakes affected 90% of firms,...
41% of Organizations Have Hired a Fake Candidate
A GetReal Security survey reveals that 41 % of IT, cybersecurity, risk and fraud leaders admit their firms have hired and onboarded a fraudulent candidate, underscoring AI‑driven identity attacks’ real‑world impact. The same study shows 88 % of organizations encounter deep‑fake or...
The 25 Most Vulnerable Passwords of 2026
Plasma’s 2026 study identified the 25 most vulnerable passwords based on global search volume and common‑password lists. “password” led the list with over 10 million searches, followed by “admin”, “qwerty”, and other simple sequences. The research also highlighted ten insecure password...
Why Traditional Upskilling Strategies Fall Short in Cybersecurity
Traditional cybersecurity upskilling programs are losing relevance as threats and technologies evolve rapidly. Ha Hoang, CIO of Commvault, argues that organizations now need hybrid talent that blends security fundamentals with automation, cloud, and data‑governance expertise. Conventional certification‑centric paths are too...
Global Leaders, Executives Exposed in Data Leak
At the Abu Dhabi Finance Week summit, an unsecured cloud server exposed the passports and national ID cards of more than 700 attendees, including former British Prime Minister David Cameron, hedge‑fund billionaire Alan Howard, and former White House communications director...
The Copilot Problem: Why Internal AI Assistants Are Becoming Accidental Data Breach Engines
Internal AI copilots are being deployed across enterprises as search and decision‑aid layers, inheriting every permission granted to users. Their ability to index, retrieve, and combine data from email, file shares, and SaaS tools exposes vast amounts of previously hidden...
The Olympics Are Going Mobile — Your Security Strategy Has to Follow
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will see mobile devices become the primary attack surface, mirroring the digital surge seen at Paris 2024 where billions engaged via apps and streaming. Cybercriminals are already deploying Olympic‑themed phishing, fake ticketing sites, malicious apps and QR‑code...
Understanding Breaches Before and After They Happen: What Every Organization Should Know
The article highlights that most cyber breaches stem from basic hygiene failures—human error, unpatched software, weak authentication, and poor segmentation—rather than sophisticated exploits. Multi‑factor authentication (MFA) blocks the majority of automated attacks but remains vulnerable to fatigue and social‑engineering tricks....
Five Top Tips for Building a Strong Security Culture
Security leader Courtney Hans outlines five practical steps for embedding a security‑first mindset across enterprises. The advice stresses understanding business goals, acting as an ally, staying approachable, enabling convenient safeguards, and publicly rewarding good behavior. By shifting security from a...
Healthcare Cybersecurity Is in Crisis — These Proven Controls Could Be the Cure
The U.S. healthcare sector experienced twice as many cyber breaches in 2025 as in 2024, with average insured losses exceeding $2 million per incident. Resilience’s analysis of claims data identified five high‑ROI controls that materially reduce risk, including anti‑fraud training, breach‑and‑attack...
Privilege Disruption: The Key Choke Point for Cyber Deterrence
The article argues that privilege disruption is the critical choke point for effective cyber deterrence under the new 2026 White House Cyber Strategy. By denying and containing privileged access early, defenders shift the attacker’s risk‑benefit calculus, preventing initial footholds from...
Leveraging ISACA for Your CMMC Career
The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is becoming the mandatory standard for Department of Defense contractors to demonstrate protection of Federal Contract Information and Controlled Unclassified Information. CMMC 2.0 streamlines requirements into three levels, with Level 1 covering basic cyber hygiene,...
Is Renewing CISA Enough to Restore Confidence for Cyber Threat Reporters?
Lawmakers introduced a minibus package that adds $20 million to expand the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and extends the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act through September 30. Experts warn that the stop‑and‑go extensions erode confidence in real‑time threat reporting, creating...
Securing Trust: Why Crisis Communication Is Your First Line of Defense
The article argues that crisis communication is a core security control, not merely a public‑relations task. It shows how timely, accurate messaging curbs panic, protects brand reputation, and satisfies strict regulatory timelines such as the SEC’s four‑day rule and GDPR’s...
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2026 Enterprise Security Trends: What Leaders Must Prepare For In An Interconnected Risk Landscape
Enterprise security in 2026 is defined by the merging of cyber and physical domains, the rise of AI as both an attack accelerator and defense multiplier, and the recognition that cloud outages are now security incidents. Recent incidents like the...
Why Your Security Team Needs to Hire Non-Traditional Professionals
Security leaders are urged to consider candidates with non‑traditional backgrounds, as highlighted in a recent Security Magazine podcast with threat analyst Aaron Walton. Examples like CISO Holly Drake, who transitioned from Russian literature and social work, illustrate how diverse education...
CISO Salaries Continue to Rise Despite Economic Uncertainty
The IANS and Artico Search CISO Compensation Benchmark Report shows that chief information security officer pay grew 6.7% in 2025, outpacing the modest 4% rise in security budgets. Equity‑based compensation expanded faster than cash, reflecting confidence in the role’s strategic...
How to Safeguard Executives Through Proactive Planning and Managing Online Presence
Recent high‑profile attacks, including the 2024 assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, have highlighted severe gaps in executive protection, especially online. Organizations are reassessing security operations, investing in physical safeguards while recognizing that digital exposure often reveals executives' locations and...
Grid Protection in Severe Weather: What Security Leaders Need to Know
A historic winter storm on Jan. 24‑25 left over 820,000 energy customers without power and placed 200 million people under severe‑cold alerts. While utilities scramble to restore service, cyber adversaries target pre‑existing grid weaknesses such as unpatched systems and lax remote‑access controls....
What Background Checks Miss: The Human Layer Behind Modern Screening
Modern hiring increasingly relies on fast, automated background checks that often limit employment history, address data, and education verification to a few days. The article argues that this speed comes at the expense of critical human‑focused layers such as rigorous...
Expert Insight on Under Armour’s Exposed Customer Data
In November 2025 Under Armour fell victim to the Everest ransomware gang, which claimed to have exfiltrated 343 GB of data. On January 21, 2026 a hacking forum published a 72‑million‑record customer dataset containing emails, names, birthdates, genders, locations and purchase...
Two Unique DHS Cyber Incidents Exposed 1M People’s Data
Within weeks, two state Departments of Human Services suffered separate data breaches, exposing personal information for nearly one million residents. In Illinois, a misconfigured map inadvertently displayed details of about 700,000 individuals, including Medicaid recipients, while Minnesota’s MnCHOICES system was...
The Email Insider Threat Has Evolved in the Era of Generative AI
The article warns that generative AI is reshaping email insider threats, turning everyday tools like grammar checkers into vectors for intellectual property loss. Attackers now use AI‑crafted phishing emails and malicious attachments that bypass traditional filters, while browser extensions silently...
The Post-Breach Narrative: Winning Back Trust After the Headlines Fade
When a cybersecurity breach dominates headlines, the real challenge begins after the news cycle fades: restoring stakeholder trust. Marketing and public‑relations teams must move beyond immediate statements to a sustained, authentic narrative that demonstrates accountability and transparency. Aligning internal messages...
The Salary of a Chief Security Officer
The 2025 Foushée Security & Compliance Compensation Survey, now run by ScottMadden, reveals notable pay shifts across 90 security roles. Chief Security Officers saw a modest 6.9% rise in base salary to $364,826, while total cash compensation slipped 2.9% and...
The Identity Theft Risk Profile of NBA and NFL Draft Prospects
A SentiLink analysis of NBA (2020‑2024) and NFL (2020‑2024) draft lists reveals that roughly 10% of listed prospects experience high‑risk identity‑theft applications, climbing to over 20% for NBA identities with active applications and nearly 15% for NFL prospects. These rates...
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Is Email the Entry Point to a Well-Rounded Disinformation Attack?
Email remains the most exploited business communication channel, now serving as the entry point for coordinated disinformation attacks that blend text, voice and video. A recent $150 million funding round for Sublime Security highlights enterprise urgency, while Valimail’s 2025 report shows...
Google Cloud Service Exploited in New Phishing Campaign
Check Point researchers uncovered a phishing campaign that abuses Google Cloud Application Integration’s “Send Email” task to dispatch malicious messages from trusted Google infrastructure. In a two‑week window the attackers sent 9,394 phishing emails targeting roughly 3,200 organizations, primarily in...
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The AI Powered Classroom Network of the Future: Because Hackers Never Take Recess
Schools are rapidly adopting AI-driven learning tools, but these applications demand high‑bandwidth, low‑latency connectivity that legacy networks cannot provide. Modernizing the campus network—both wired and wireless—is essential to sustain real‑time AI services, protect student data, and prevent ransomware disruptions. Integrated...
Cybercrime Economics: AI’s Impact and How to Shift Defenses
Generative AI is reshaping fraud economics by automating and personalizing attacks, lowering the skill barrier for cybercriminals. The article explains how traditional perimeter‑centric, rule‑based defenses are increasingly ineffective against AI‑driven, adaptive threats. It advocates a shift to continuous, behavior‑driven detection,...
How Can CISOs Create the Ideal Cyber Budget?
Cybersecurity budgets have hit a five‑year low in growth, leaving CISOs to stretch limited funds while confronting emerging AI‑related risks. Chris Wheeler, CISO of Resilience, advises a budgeting approach that prioritizes compliance, seeks controls with positive return‑on‑controls, and plans for...
Cybersecurity Stagnation in Healthcare: The Hidden Financial Costs
Healthcare providers are confronting a stark financial reality: the cost of maintaining an immature cybersecurity program now exceeds the expense of modernizing it. Breach incidents in the sector average $11‑12 million, while prolonged outages and regulatory penalties add further strain....
Product Spotlight: 2025 Year in Review
The 2025 Year in Review product spotlight showcases six security‑focused solutions targeting education, enterprise, and financial sectors. Connect ONE’s ERP consolidates school data and grants first‑responder‑only access, while Genetec embeds cloud‑native audio into its Security Center SaaS for real‑time coordination....
630M Passwords Stolen, FBI Reveals: What This Says About Credential Value
The FBI transferred a list of 630 million stolen credentials to Troy Hunt of Have I Been Pwned after seizing devices from a single suspect. Approximately 46 million of those passwords were new to HIBP, expanding its breach database. Security experts say...
The Most Dangerous 6 Weeks of the Year
A wave of cyber‑fraud targets mid‑sized manufacturers during the Thanksgiving‑to‑New Year window, exploiting altered bank routing numbers and rushed wire approvals. Employee distraction, heightened transaction volume, and reduced security staffing combine to create a perfect storm for attackers. Traditional detection tools...
