Quote for the day:
"The world's most deadly disease is hardening of the attitudes." -- Zig Ziglar
AI sharpens threat detection — but could it dull human analyst skills?
While AI offers clear advantages, there are real risks when used without
caution. Blind trust in AI-generated recommendations can lead to missed threats
or incorrect actions, especially when professionals rely too heavily on prebuilt
threat scores or automated responses. A lack of curiosity to validate findings
weakens analysis and limits learning opportunities from edge cases or anomalies.
This mirrors patterns seen in internet search behavior, where users often skim
for quick answers rather than dig deeper. It bypasses critical thinking that
strengthens neural connections and sparks new ideas. In cybersecurity — where
stakes are high and threats evolve fast — human validation and healthy
skepticism remain essential. ... AI literacy is becoming a must-have skill for
cybersecurity teams, especially as more organizations adopt automation to handle
growing threat volumes. Incorporating AI education into security training and
tabletop exercises helps professionals stay sharp and confident when working
alongside intelligent tools. When teams can spot AI bias or recognize
hallucinated outputs, they’re less likely to take automated insights at face
value. This kind of awareness supports better judgment and more effective
responses. It also pays off, as organizations that use security AI and
automation extensively save an average of $2.22 million in prevention
costs. Repatriation games: the mid-market reevaluates its public cloud consumption
Many IT decision-makers were quick to blame public cloud service providers. But
it’s more likely that the applications and workloads were never intended for
public cloud environments. Or that cloud-enabled applications and workloads were
incorrectly configured. Either way, poor application and workload performance
meant that the expected efficiency gains and cost savings from public cloud
adoption did not materialize. This led to budgeting and resourcing problems, as
well as friction between IT management, senior leadership teams, and other
stakeholders. ... Concerns over data sovereignty and compliance have also
influenced decisions to repatriate public cloud workloads and adopt a hybrid
cloud model, particularly due to worries about DORA, GDPR and the US Cloud Act
compliance. DORA and GDPR both place greater emphasis on data sovereignty, so
organizations need to have greater control over where their data resides. This
makes a strong case for repatriation of specific workloads to maintain
compliance with both sets of regulations – especially within highly regulated
industries or for sensitive information such as HR or financial data. ... Nearly
a third of respondents say cybersecurity specialists are the most difficult
roles to hire or retain. Some mid-market organizations may lack the in-house
skills to configure and manage cybersecurity in public cloud environments or
even understand their default settings. A guide to de-risking enterprise-wide financial transformation
Distilling the lessons from these large-scale initiatives, a clear blueprint
emerges for leaders embarking on their own transformation journeys:Define a
data-driven vision: A successful transformation begins with a clear vision for
how data will function as a strategic asset. The goal should be to create a
single source of truth that is granular, accessible and enables a shift from
reactive reporting to proactive analysis. Lead with process, not technology:
Technology is an enabler, not the solution itself. Invest heavily in
understanding and harmonizing end-to-end business processes before a single line
of code is written. This effort is the foundation for a sustainable,
low-customization system. De-risk with a phased, modular approach: Avoid the
“big bang.” Break the program into logical phases, delivering tangible business
value at each step. This builds momentum, facilitates organizational learning
and significantly reduces the risk of catastrophic failure. Prioritize the user
experience: Even the most powerful system will fail if it is not adopted. Engage
end users throughout the design and implementation process. Build intuitive
tools, like the FIRST microsite, and invest in robust training and change
management to drive adoption and proficiency. ... Such forums are critical for
breaking down silos and ensuring the end-to-end process is optimized. ...
Transforming the financial core of a global technology leader is not merely a
technical undertaking, it is a strategic imperative for enabling scale, agility
and insight.5 things IT managers get wrong about upskilling tech teams
One of the most pervasive issues in IT upskilling is what Patrice
Williams-Lindo, CEO at career coaching service Career Nomad, called the
“training-and-forgetting” approach. “Many managers send teams to training
without any plan for application,” she said. “Employees return to overloaded
sprints” with no guidance on how to incorporate what they’ve learned. Without
application in their work, “new skills atrophy fast.” This problem is rooted in
basic learning science. ... Another major pitfall is the overemphasis on
certifications as proof of capability. Managers often assume that a
certification is going to solve a problem without considering whether it fits
the day-to-day job, said Tim Beerman, CTO at managed service provider Ensono.
What’s more, certification alone doesn’t equal real-world capability and doesn’t
necessarily indicate that a person is competent, according to CGS’ Stephen.
While a certification shows that someone has the capability to obtain learned
knowledge, he said, it doesn’t guarantee practical application skills. ... Many
IT managers fall into the trap of pursuing trendy technologies without
connecting them to actual business needs. Williams-Lindo warned that focusing on
hype skills without business alignment backfires. While AI, cloud, and
blockchain sound strategic, she said, if they aren’t tied to current or
near-future business objectives, teams will spend time learning irrelevant tools
while core needs are ignored.Gen AI risks are getting clearer. How much would you pay for digital trust?
“As AI becomes more pervasive and kind of invades various dimensions of our
lives and our work, how we interact with it and how safe and trustworthy it is,
has become paramount,” said Dan Hays ... What do trust and safety issues look
like, when it comes to AI agents in customer interactions? Hays gave several
examples: Should AI agents remember everything that a particular customer says
to them, or should it “forget” interactions, particularly as years or decades
pass? The memory capabilities of bots also relate to the question of, what
parameters should be placed on how AI agents are allowed to interact with
customers? ... “As organizations across nearly all industries dive head-first
into AI and digital transformations, they’re running into new risks that could
undermine the trust they’ve built with consumers. Right now, many don’t have the
guardrails or experience to handle these evolving threats — and the ripple
effects are being felt across entire companies and industries,” the PwC report
said. However, it seems that people who can, are willing to pay for digital
environments and services that they can trust — much like subscribers to
paywalled content sites can generally trust what they are getting, while those
looking for free news might end up reading information that is garbled or
deliberately twisted with the help of AI.Object Storage: The Last Line of Defense Against Ransomware
Object storage provides intrinsic advantages in immutability, as it does not
provide “edit in place” functionality as with file systems which are designed
to allow direct file modifications. Unlike traditional file or block storage,
object storage interacts through “get and put” access and write APIs, which
means malware and ransomware actors have to attempt to write (or overwrite
modified objects) via the API to the object store. ... As ransomware continues
to evolve, organizations must design storage strategies that protect at every
level. Cyber resilience in the storage layer involves a layered defense that
spans architecture, APIs, and operational practices. ... A successful data
center attack not only disrupts service but also undermines the partner’s
reputation for reliability. Technology partners must demonstrate their
infrastructure can isolate tenants, withstand attacks, and deliver continuous
availability even in adverse conditions. In both cases, cyber-resilient
storage is no longer optional. ... Business continuity leaders should
prioritize S3-compatible object storage with ransomware-proof capabilities
such as object locking, versioning, and multi-layered access controls. Just as
importantly, they should evaluate whether their current storage platforms
deliver end-to-end cyber resilience that spans both technology and process.Time to Embrace Offensive Security for True Resilience
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Offensive engagements utilize an attacker mindset to focus on truly
exploitable weaknesses, weeding out the noise of unprioritized lists of
vulnerabilities. Through remediation of high-impact findings, organizations
prevent spreading resources over low-impact issues. Additionally, offloading
sophisticated simulations to specialized teams or utilizing automated
penetration testing speeds testing cycles and maximizes security investments.
Essentially, each dollar invested in offensive testing can pre-empt multiples
of breach response, legal penalties, lost productivity, and reputational loss.
Successful security testing takes more than shallow scans; it needs fully
immersed, real-world simulations that mimic the methods employed by actual
threat actors to test your systems. Below is an overview of the most effective
methods: ... Red teaming exercises goes beyond standard testing by simulating
skilled threat actors with secretive, multi-step attack scenarios. These
exercises check not just technical weaknesses but also the organization’s
ability to notice, respond to, and recover from real security breaches. Red
teams often use methods like social engineering, lateral movement, and
privilege escalation to test incident response teams. This uncovers flaws in
technology and human procedures during realistic attack simulations.7 Enterprise Architecture Best Practices for 2025
The foundational principle of effective enterprise architecture is its direct
and unbreakable link to business strategy. This alignment ensures that every
technological decision, architectural blueprint, and IT investment serves a
clear business purpose. It transforms the EA function from a cost center
focused on technical standards into a strategic partner that drives business
value, innovation, and competitive advantage. ... Adopting a framework
establishes a shared understanding among stakeholders, from IT teams to
business leaders. It provides a standardized set of tools, templates, and
terminologies, which reduces ambiguity and improves communication. This
structured approach is fundamental to creating a holistic and integrated view
of the enterprise, allowing architects to manage complexity, mitigate risks,
and align technology initiatives with strategic goals in a systematic way. ...
While a strong strategy provides the direction for enterprise architecture,
robust governance provides the necessary guardrails and decision-making
framework to keep it on track. EA governance establishes the processes,
standards, and controls that ensure architectural decisions align with
business objectives and are implemented consistently across the organization.
It transforms architecture from a set of recommendations into an enforceable,
value-driven discipline. Why Cloud Repatriation is Critical Post-VMware Exit
What began as a tactical necessity evolved into an expensive operational
habit, with monthly bills that continue climbing without corresponding
business value. The rush to cloud often bypassed careful workload assessment,
resulting in applications running in expensive public cloud environments that
would be more cost-effective on-premises. ... Equally important, the
technology landscape has evolved since the initial cloud migration wave. We
now have universal infrastructure-wide operating platforms that deliver
cloud-like experiences on-premises, eliminating the operational gaps that
initially drove workloads to public cloud. Combined with universal migration
capabilities that can move workloads seamlessly from any source—whether
VMware, other hypervisors, or major cloud providers—organizations finally have
the tools needed to make cloud repatriation both technically feasible and
economically compelling. ... The forced VMware migration creates the perfect
opportunity to reassess the entire infrastructure portfolio holistically
rather than making isolated platform decisions. ... This infrastructure reset
enables IT teams to ask fundamental questions that operational inertia
prevents: Which workloads benefit from cloud deployment? What applications
could run more affordably on modern on-premises infrastructure? How can we
optimize our total infrastructure spend across both on-premises and cloud
environments?
