Quote for the day:
Don't fear failure. Fear being in the exact same place next year as you are today. - Unknown
Security Tools Alone Don't Protect You — Control Effectiveness Does
Buying more tools has long been considered the key to cybersecurity performance.
Yet the facts tell a different story. According to the Gartner report,
"misconfiguration of technical security controls is a leading cause for the
continued success of attacks." Many organizations have impressive inventories of
firewalls, endpoint solutions, identity tools, SIEMs, and other controls. Yet
breaches continue because these tools are often misconfigured, poorly
integrated, or disconnected from actual business risks. ... Moving toward true
control effectiveness takes more than just a few technical tweaks. It requires a
real shift - in mindset, in day-to-day practice, and in how teams across the
organization work together. Success depends on stronger partnerships between
security teams, asset owners, IT operations, and business leaders. Asset owners,
in particular, bring critical knowledge to the table - how their systems are
built, where the sensitive data lives, and which processes are too important to
fail. Supporting this collaboration also means rethinking how we train teams.
... Making security controls truly effective demands a broader shift in how
organizations think and work. Security optimization must be embedded into how
systems are designed, operated, and maintained - not treated as a separate
function.
APIs: From Tools to Business Growth Engines
Apart from earning revenue, APIs also offer other benefits, including
providing value to customers, partners and internal stakeholders through
seamless integration and improving response time. By integrating third-party
services seamlessly, APIs allow businesses to offer feature-rich, convenient
and highly personalized experiences. This helps improve the "stickiness" of
the customer and reduces churn. ... As businesses adopt cloud solutions,
develop mobile applications and transition to microservice architectures, APIs
have become a critical foundation of technological innovation. But their
widespread use presents significant security risks. Poorly secured APIs can be
prone to becoming cyberattack entry points, potentially exposing sensitive
data, granting unauthorized access or even leading to extensive network
compromises. ... Managing the API life cycle using specialized tools and
frameworks is also essential. This ensures a structured approach in the seven
stages of API life cycle: design, development, testing, deployment, API
performance monitoring, maintenance and retirement. This approach maximizes
their value while minimizing risks. "APIs should be scalable and versioned to
prevent breaking changes, with clear documentation for adoption. Performance
should be optimized through rate limiting, caching and load balancing ..."
Musser said.
How to Slash Cloud Waste Without Annoying Developers
Waste in cloud spending is not necessarily due to negligence or a lack of
resources; it’s often due to poor visibility and understanding of how to
optimize costs and resource allocations. Ironically, Kubernetes and GitOps were
designed to enable DevOps practices by providing building blocks to facilitate
collaboration between operations teams and developers ... ScaleOps’ platform
serves as an example of an option that abstracts and automates the process. It’s
positioned not as a platform for analysis and visibility but for resource
automation. ScaleOps automates decision-making by eliminating the need for
manual analysis and intervention, helping resource management become a
continuous optimization of the infrastructure map. Scaling decisions, such as
determining how to vertically scale, horizontally scale, and schedule pods onto
the cluster to maximize performance and cost savings, are then made in real
time. This capability forms the core of the ScaleOps platform. Savings and
scaling efficiency are achieved through real-time usage data and predictive
algorithms that determine the correct amount of resources needed at the pod
level at the right time. The platform is “fully context-aware,” automatically
identifying whether a workload involves a MySQL database, a stateless HTTP
server, or a critical Kafka broker, and incorporating this information into
scaling decisions, Baron said.
How to Prevent Your Security Tools from Turning into Exploits
Attackers don't need complex strategies when some security tools provide
unrestricted access due to sloppy setups. Without proper input validation, APIs
are at risk of being exploited, turning a vital defense mechanism into an attack
vector. Bad actors can manipulate such APIs to execute malicious commands,
seizing control over the tool and potentially spreading their reach across your
infrastructure. Endpoint detection tools that log sensitive credentials in plain
text worsen the problem by exposing pathways for privilege escalation and
further compromise. ... If monitoring tools and critical production servers
share the same network segment, a single compromised tool can give attackers
free rein to move laterally and access sensitive systems. Isolating security
tools into dedicated network zones is a best practice to prevent this, as proper
segmentation reduces the scope of a breach and limits the attacker's ability to
move laterally. Sandboxing adds another layer of security, too. ...
Collaboration is key for zero trust to succeed. Security cannot be siloed within
IT; developers, operations, and security teams must work together from the
start. Automated security checks within CI/CD pipelines can catch
vulnerabilities before deployment, such as when verbose logging is accidentally
enabled on a production server.
Fortifying Your Defenses: Ransomware Protection Strategies in the Age of Black Basta
What sets Black Basta apart is its disciplined methodology. Initial access is
typically gained through phishing campaigns, vulnerable public-facing
applications, compromised credentials or malicious software packages. Once
inside, the group moves laterally through the network, escalates privileges,
exfiltrates data and deploys ransomware at the most damaging points. Bottom
line: Groups like Black Basta aren’t using zero-day exploits. They’re taking
advantage of known gaps defenders too often leave open. ... Start with
multi-factor authentication across remote access points and cloud applications.
Audit user privileges regularly and apply the principle of least privilege.
Consider passwordless authentication to eliminate commonly abused credentials.
... Unpatched internet-facing systems are among the most frequent entry points.
Prioritize known exploited vulnerabilities, automate updates when possible and
scan frequently. ... Secure VPNs with MFA. Where feasible, move to stronger
architectures like virtual desktop infrastructure or zero trust network access,
which assumes compromise is always a possibility. ... Phishing is still a top
tactic. Go beyond spam filters. Use behavioral analysis tools and conduct
regular training to help users spot suspicious emails. External email banners
can provide a simple warning signal.
AI Emotional Dependency and the Quiet Erosion of Democratic Life
Byung-Chul Han’s The Expulsion of the Other is particularly instructive here. He
argues that neoliberal societies are increasingly allergic to otherness: what is
strange, challenging, or unfamiliar. Emotionally responsive AI companions embody
this tendency. They reflect a sanitized version of the self, avoiding friction
and reinforcing existing preferences. The user is never contradicted, never
confronted. Over time, this may diminish one’s capacity for engaging with real
difference; precisely the kind of engagement required for democracy to flourish.
In addition, Han’s Psychopolitics offers a crucial lens through which to
understand this transformation. He argues that power in the digital age no
longer represses individuals but instead exploits their freedom, leading people
to voluntarily submit to control through mechanisms of self-optimization,
emotional exposure, and constant engagement. ... As behavioral psychologist BJ
Fogg has shown, digital systems are designed to shape behavior. When these
persuasive technologies take the form of emotionally intelligent agents, they
begin to shape how we feel, what we believe, and whom we turn to for support.
The result is a reconfiguration of subjectivity: users become emotionally
aligned with machines, while withdrawing from the messy, imperfect human
community.
From prompts to production: AI will soon write most code, reshape developer roles
While that timeline might sound bold, it points to a real shift in how software
is built, with trends like vibe coding already taking off. Diego Lo Giudice, a
vice president analyst at Forrester Research, said even senior developers are
starting to leverage vibe as an additional tool. But he believes vibe coding and
other AI-assisted development methods are currently aimed at “low hanging fruit”
that frees up devs and engineers for more important and creative tasks. ...
Augmented coding tools can help brainstorm, prototype, build full features, and
check code for errors or security holes using natural language processing —
whether through real-time suggestions, interactive code editing, or full-stack
guidance. The tools streamline coding, making them ideal for solo developers,
fast prototyping, or collaborative workflows, according to Gartner. GenAI tools
include prompt-to-application tools such as StackBlitz Bolt.new, Github Spark,
and Lovable, as well as AI-augmented testing tools such as BlinqIO, Diffblue,
IDERA, QualityKiosk Technologies and Qyrus. ... Developers find genAI tools most
useful for tasks like boilerplate generation, code understanding, testing,
documentation, and refactoring. But they also create risks around code quality,
IP, bias, and the effort needed to guide and verify outputs, Gartner said in a
report last month.
Navigating the Warehouse Technology Matrix: Integration Strategies and Automation Flexibility in the IIoT Era
Warehouses have evolved from cost centers to strategic differentiators that
directly impact customer satisfaction and competitive advantages. This
transformation has been driven by e-commerce growth, heightened consumer
expectations, labor challenges, and rapid technological advancement. For many
organizations, the resulting technology ecosystem resembles a patchwork of
systems struggling to communicate effectively, creating what analysts term
“analysis paralysis” where leaders become overwhelmed by options. ... Among
warehouse complexity dimensions, MHE automation plays a pivotal role—and it is
easy to determine where you are on the Maturity Model. Organizations at Level 5
in automation automatically reach Level 5 overall complexity due to the
integration, orchestration and investment needed to take advantage of MHE
operational efficiencies. ... Providing unified control for diverse automation
equipment, optimizing tasks and simplifying integration. Put simply, this is a
software layer that coordinates multiple “agents” in real time, ensuring they
work together without clashing. By dynamically assigning and reassigning tasks
based on current workloads and priorities, these platforms reduce downtime,
enhance productivity, and streamline communication between otherwise siloed
systems.
How AI-Powered OSINT is Revolutionizing Threat Detection and Intelligence Gathering
Police and intelligence officers have traditionally relied on tips, informants,
and classified sources. In contrast, OSINT draws from the vast “digital public
square,” including social media networks, public records, and forums. For
example, even casual social media posts can signal planned riots or extremist
recruitment efforts. India’s diverse linguistic and cultural landscape also
means that important signals may appear in dozens of regional languages and
scripts – a scale that outstrips human monitoring. OSINT platforms address this
by incorporating multilingual analysis, automatically translating and
interpreting content from Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and more. In practice, an
AI-driven system can flag a Tamil-language tweet with extremist rhetoric just as
easily as an English Facebook post. ... Artificial intelligence is what turns
raw OSINT data into strategic intelligence. Machine learning and natural
language processing (NLP) allow systems to filter noise, detect patterns and
make predictions. For instance, sentiment analysis algorithms can gauge public
mood or support for extremist ideologies in real time. By tracking language
trends and emotional tone across social media, AI can alert analysts to rising
anger or unrest. In one recent case study, an AI-powered OSINT tool identified
over 1,300 social media accounts spreading incendiary propaganda during Delhi
protests.
How to Determine Whether a Cloud Service Delivers Real Value
The cost of cloud services varies widely, but so does the functionality they
offer. This means an expensive service may be well worth the price — if the
capabilities it offers deliver a great deal of value. On the other hand, some
cloud services simply cost a lot without providing much in the way of value. For
IT organizations, then, a primary challenge in selecting cloud services is
figuring out how much value they generate relative to their cost. This is rarely
straightforward because what is valuable to one team might be of little use to
another. ... No one can predict how cloud service providers may change their
pricing or features in the future, of course. But you can make reasonable
predictions. For instance, there's an argument to be made (and I will make it)
that as generative AI cloud services mature and AI adoption rates increase,
cloud service providers will raise fees for AI services. Currently, most
generative AI services appear to be operating at a steep financial loss — which
is unsurprising because all of the GPUs powering AI services don't just pay for
themselves. If cloud providers want to make money on genAI, they'll probably
need to raise their rates sooner or later, potentially reducing the value that
businesses leverage from generative AI.
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