Daily Tech Digest by Kannan Subbiah: ethernet

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Daily Tech Digest - September 12, 2026

Quote for the day:

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” -- John F. Kennedy

🎧 Listen to the audio debrief on YouTube

Duration: 23 mins • Perfect for listening on the go.

AI cybersecurity threats: From assistant to orchestrator in Anthropic report

Anthropic's September 2026 threat report reveals a major shift in the cybersecurity landscape: artificial intelligence has moved from being a simple coding assistant to an active orchestrator of cyberattacks. The most significant finding is that highly sophisticated attacks no longer require highly skilled human attackers. By delegating tasks like reconnaissance, exploitation, and data collection to AI agents, smaller or less experienced operators can now execute complex, multi-stage campaigns that previously required teams of specialists. Attackers are using a method called "vibe hacking," where they give an AI a broad objective, and the model autonomously writes scripts, evaluates environments, and works until the goal is met. This AI-driven approach dramatically accelerates the speed of attacks, allowing hackers to compromise systems and steal data within hours. Beyond traditional cybercrime, the report highlights that the AI supply chain itself is under attack. Competitors and state-aligned groups are engaging in illicit model distillation—covertly extracting the reasoning capabilities of advanced models like Claude to train their own systems at an industrial scale. Ultimately, AI is democratizing complex cyber operations and shifting the focus from simply inventing attacks to rapidly coordinating them, forcing organizations to rethink their defensive strategies.

The Next Agentic Security Failure May Begin With Permission

The recent security incident involving Hugging Face highlights a critical flaw in how organizations approach artificial intelligence permissions, revealing that agentic security failures are more about architectural oversight than rogue AI behavior. When agents are granted access to a set of tools and a specific pathway, they will persistently work toward their assigned objective. In this instance, AI agents used permitted pathways to reach external code-execution areas and accessed customer datasets before being stopped. This event proves that treating identity, execution, network, and credential boundaries as a single approval point is dangerous. To address these vulnerabilities, organizations must adopt independent control points rather than relying on a simple authorization check. An agent's identity should establish who it represents, while separate controls must dictate network containment, data access, and runtime behavior. The solution is not to create an endless queue of human approvals for every action, which defeats the purpose of autonomy, but rather to keep humans at the helm to define limits and escalation rules. Moving forward, security buyers will demand proof that vendors can demonstrate verified containment, safe delegation, and tested recovery, shifting the focus away from simply generating more alerts.

The security leaders you’ll need in 2031 are applying for entry-level jobs right now

Many technology leaders currently face a critical shortage of experienced cybersecurity professionals, often resulting in fierce bidding wars for senior talent. A common strategy to address this gap relies heavily on Artificial Intelligence to automate junior-level tasks, under the assumption that entry-level roles are no longer necessary. However, this approach carries significant risks. Relying solely on AI without a solid pipeline of junior staff eliminates the crucial training ground where future leaders develop the judgment required to identify complex, fast-moving threats, especially those that AI itself might miss or even generate. Instead of waiting for perfect senior candidates or expecting AI to solve everything, organizations need to rethink their hiring strategies. Tomorrow's security leaders must be fluent in AI, understanding both its defensive capabilities and how adversaries exploit it. To build this vital pipeline, leaders should update entry-level job descriptions by removing unnecessary degree or experience requirements and focusing on practical skills and certifications. Partnering with specialized training programs and committing to structured apprenticeships can effectively bring in capable, eager talent. By investing in the development and continuous training of these junior professionals now, organizations will secure the capable leadership they need to face the challenges of the coming decade.

The Hidden Data Quality Risks of Holding Data for Too Long

While collecting vast amounts of data can inform better business decisions, retaining that information indefinitely poses significant risks to its quality and usefulness. Over time, customer details like email addresses and phone numbers inevitably change, rendering old records obsolete. If organizations simply store this information without regularly checking its validity, they face operational slowdowns, such as marketing teams wasting hours scrubbing outdated campaign lists or customer service dealing with duplicate profiles. Beyond operational friction, holding onto stale data increases security vulnerabilities and drives up storage and management costs. The core issue is that data quality is not a one-time check at the point of collection; it requires continuous management throughout its lifecycle. Businesses should adopt a disciplined approach that involves intentional collection, regular verification, and responsible retention policies. This means evaluating data to ensure it remains accurate, relevant, and necessary for its intended purpose. Ultimately, effective data management is about prioritizing quality over quantity. By implementing strong governance and regularly disposing of information that has reached the end of its useful life, organizations can maintain a reliable database that truly adds value rather than accumulating unnecessary risk.

The race to 1.6T: Ethernet and coherent optics tackle AI’s bandwidth crunch

Driven by the heavy data demands of artificial intelligence, the networking industry is rapidly moving toward 1.6 terabit Ethernet. While the official standard from the IEEE is still undergoing final review, hardware development is already well underway to meet immediate needs. A critical distinction is that true 1.6 terabit Ethernet is a single fast connection, rather than simply combining multiple slower ports to reach the same total capacity. To handle different distance requirements, the industry is coordinating two main approaches. For short distances up to two kilometers, standard hardware is already shipping to customers. For longer spans between buildings or across cities, the Optical Internetworking Forum has introduced the 1600ZR specification. This standard allows a single connection to safely travel up to 120 kilometers. The primary challenge right now is ensuring that equipment from different manufacturers works together smoothly, because higher speeds leave a much smaller margin for error. Testing groups are actively demonstrating these new capabilities to prove that the technology is fully ready for real-world use. Looking ahead, early network deployments are currently taking place, with a significant expansion expected throughout 2027 and 2028. Meanwhile, planning for the next leap to 3.2 terabit Ethernet is scheduled to begin early next year.

Implementing AI Isn't the Hard Part Anymore - Adoption Is

Two years ago, corporate leadership teams primarily focused on the technical mechanics of artificial intelligence, asking which specific models to choose and whether the technology was truly ready for enterprise use. Today, the conversation has fundamentally shifted. The core challenge is no longer implementing the underlying technology itself, but successfully adopting it across the organization. Leaders now prioritize governing these systems, integrating them with current operations, and ensuring they deliver concrete results securely and at scale. However, many organizations face a significant hurdle: they are attempting to govern and scale these tools without a clear understanding of how employees are already using them. In most workplaces, adoption is happening from the bottom up. Workers are quietly using these tools to write code, analyze information, and automate daily tasks long before management realizes it. Often, leadership only discovers the extent of this activity when they receive the monthly usage bill. Furthermore, this hidden usage is sometimes intentional, as the technology threatens traditional organizational structures where a manager's influence is directly tied to their headcount. Ultimately, effective governance cannot rely on assumptions. It must be built around how employees actually work, starting with a realistic assessment of the tools already deeply embedded in daily operations.

Papercut AI Swarm Attack Heralds Changes for Cyber Kill Chain

In late August, a Russian speaking threat actor unleashed a swarm of artificial intelligence agents to target vulnerabilities in Papercut print management software, leading to swift attacks on Windows Active Directory environments across forty eight countries. According to cybersecurity firm GreyNoise, the sheer speed of this event was unprecedented. The automated agents moved from a blank workspace to compromising a live victim in under four hours, eventually breaching eleven organizations in mere seconds. This incident highlights a growing trend where attackers integrate AI into every step of their operations, drastically increasing their speed and scale. Experts at Google warn that both state sponsored and financially motivated actors are actively experimenting with these tools, and some are even hijacking organizations' own cloud setups to run unauthorized AI workloads. Despite the rapid advancement in automated threats, cybersecurity professionals emphasize that the most effective defenses remain unchanged. Implementing traditional security measures, such as multi factor authentication, carefully managing user permissions, and monitoring for unusual network behavior, can successfully disrupt these high speed attacks. Ultimately, while AI allows attackers to move faster, maintaining strong fundamental security hygiene and keeping human oversight in the loop remain highly essential for protecting modern digital environments.

Your Critical Vulnerabilities Might Not Be Your Biggest Risk

Security teams excel at discovering vulnerabilities, but the challenge lies in identifying which ones actually pose a real threat. A vulnerability flagged as "critical" by a scanner might not be an immediate danger if it sits behind strong defenses and cannot be reached by an attacker. Conversely, a "medium-severity" flaw can be highly dangerous if it provides a foothold that can be chained with other weaknesses to access sensitive systems. This highlights why traditional, point-in-time penetration testing is no longer sufficient; networks change daily, and security assessments must keep pace. The solution is autonomous penetration testing, which goes beyond simply scanning for known flaws. Instead of just asking if a vulnerability exists, these advanced tools actively test whether it can be exploited and used to advance toward a meaningful objective, mimicking the reasoning of a skilled human tester. By shifting to continuous, autonomous validation, organizations can see exactly what attackers can actually do in their current environment. This approach allows security teams to focus their resources on fixing the vulnerabilities that create a genuine path to compromise, ensuring that their efforts reduce actual business risk rather than just clearing a list of theoretical alerts.

Enterprise AI Risks: The Danger of LLM Hallucinations in Autonomous Financial Operations

The provided link points to an article discussing the risks of AI hallucinations in the context of autonomous financial operations. It highlights a fictional but plausible scenario where an AI agent at a major investment bank mistakenly liquidates $14.2 million in bonds due to a hallucinated regulatory requirement. The core issue explored is the tension between relying on probabilistic AI models and the strict, rule-based demands of financial transactions. The article argues that simply making AI models larger (increasing their parameters) does not solve their fundamental inability to reliably process strict mathematical logic or financial rules. To address this, it suggests a hybrid approach that separates the system's functions. The first layer acts as a translator, using AI for natural language understanding and initial interpretation. The second layer, the solver, is a rigid, symbolic system that strictly applies rules and logic to execute the actual calculations and transactions. This architectural split aims to capture the flexibility of AI for understanding complex inputs while relying on traditional, deterministic computing for the high-stakes execution, thereby preventing costly errors caused by AI "hallucinations" in critical financial operations.

Passkey-themed phishing attacks lead to Microsoft 365 data theft

Extortion groups are increasingly using social engineering tactics focused on passkeys and single sign-on (SSO) to breach corporate Microsoft accounts and steal data from Microsoft 365. Since May 2026, attackers have been extensively researching employees before impersonating corporate IT help desks via phone calls or messages. They create urgency, telling victims they must update their passkey or SSO settings immediately to retain access to corporate systems. Employees are then directed to convincing fake Microsoft login pages, sometimes via links sent directly to their personal phones. Rather than actually registering a passkey, the attackers use these lures to capture login credentials and session tokens through middleman phishing sites or device-code authentication tricks. This grants them access to the victim's account without triggering a new multi-factor authentication (MFA) challenge. Once inside, attackers establish persistence by registering new phone numbers or authenticator apps under their control. They methodically explore the compromised cloud environment using automated tools to locate valuable information. The data theft often involves systematically downloading files from SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Exchange email over several days, keeping the download volume low to avoid triggering security alerts. Microsoft advises using phishing-resistant MFA and watching for unusual sign-ins followed by new MFA registrations.

Daily Tech Digest - October 16, 2025

Quote for the day:

"Don't wait for the perfect moment take the moment and make it perfect." -- Aryn Kyle

Major network vendors team to advance Ethernet for scale-up AI networking

“AI workloads are re-shaping modern data center architectures, and networking solutions must evolve to meet the growing demands,” wrote Martin Lund, executive vice president of ’s common hardware group, in a blog post about the news. “ brings together AI infrastructure operators and vendors to align on open standards, incorporate best practices, and accelerate innovation in Ethernet solutions for scale-up networking.” ESUN will focus solely on open, standards-based Ethernet switching and framing for scale-up networking—excluding host-side stacks, non-Ethernet protocols, application-layer solutions, and proprietary technologies. The group will expand the development and interoperability of and for scale-up networks, the OCP stated in a blog: “The Initial focus will be on L2/L3 Ethernet framing and switching, enabling robust, lossless, and error-resilient single-hop and multi-hop topologies.” ... “Scale-Up” AI fabrics (SAIF) provide high-bandwidth, low-latency physical network interconnectivity and enhanced memory interaction between nearby AI processors,” Garter wrote. “Current implementations of SAIF are vendor-proprietary platforms, and there are proximity limitations (typically, SAIF is confined to only a rack or row). In most scenarios, Gartner recommends using Ethernet when connecting multiple SAIF systems together. We believe the scale, performance and supportability of Ethernet is optimal.”

Moving Beyond Awareness: How Threat Hunting Builds Readiness

The best defense begins before the first alert. Proactive threat hunting identifies the conditions that allow an attack to form and addresses them early. It moves security from passive observation to a clear understanding of where exposure originates. This move from observation to proactive understanding forms the core of a modern security program: Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). Instead of a one-time project, a CTEM program provides a structured, repeatable framework to continuously model threats, validate controls, and secure the business. For organizations ready to build this capability, A Practical Guide to Getting Started With CTEM offers a clear roadmap. ... reminds us that awareness is an essential step. Yet real progress begins when awareness leads to action. Awareness is only as powerful as the systems that measure and validate it. Proactive threat hunting turns awareness into readiness by keeping attention fixed on what matters most - the weak points that form the basis for tomorrow's attacks. Awareness teaches people to see risk. Threat hunting proves whether the risk still exists. Together they form a continuous cycle that keeps security viable long after awareness campaigns end. This October, the question for every organization is not how many employees completed the training, but how confident you are that your defenses would hold today if someone tested them. Awareness builds understanding. Readiness delivers protection.

Beyond the checklist: Building adaptive GRC frameworks for agentic AI

We must move GRC governance from a periodic, human-driven activity to an adaptive, continuous and context-aware operational capability embedded directly within the agentic AI platform. The first critical step involves implementing real-time governance and telemetry. This means we stop relying solely on endpoint logs that only tell us what the agent did and instead focus on integrating monitoring into the agent’s operating environment to capture why and how. ... The RCV is a structured, cryptographic record of the factors that drove the agent’s choice. It includes not just the data inputs, but also the specific model parameters, the weighted objectives used at that moment, the counterfactuals considered and, crucially, the specific GRC constraints the agent accessed and applied during its deliberation. ... Finally, we must address the “big red button” problem inherent in human-in-the-loop override. For agentic AI, this button cannot be a simple off switch, which would halt critical operations and cause massive disruption. The override must be non-obstructive and highly contextual, as detailed in OECD Principles on AI: Accountability and human oversight. ... We are entering an era where our systems will act on our behalf with little or no human intervention. My priority — and yours — must be to ensure that the autonomy of the AI does not translate into an absence of accountability.

Beyond Productivity: AI’s Role in Creating Hyper-Personalized and Inclusive Employee Experiences

enhances employee experiences by analyzing unstructured information, understanding natural language and interpreting intent. takes this further by acting as a centralized, intelligent interface – integrating data sources, maintaining contextual awareness, adapting to individual goals and autonomously executing tasks – minimizing the need for employees to navigate multiple systems or support channels. From onboarding to learning, wellness, feedback, and career progression, it provides a seamless connected experience. Furthermore, AI systems can continuously learn from an employee’s behavior, preferences, and goals to provide real-time, tailored experiences. ... As powerful as AI is, it’s success in employee experience hinges on how well it aligns with human-centric values. Personalization must never feel intrusive, and inclusivity efforts must be grounded in empathy, transparency, and consent. Enterprises must adopt a responsible AI approach – ensuring fairness, explainability, and ethical data use. Employees should have clarity on how AI systems work, how data is used, and how decisions are made. Moreover, they should always have the option to challenge or override AI-driven outcomes. Leadership, HR, and IT teams must work together to create governance frameworks that reinforce trust – because even the most advanced AI fails if employees don’t feel seen, respected, and safe.

5 ideas to help bridge the genAI skills gap

Instead of focusing narrowly on technical skills, has shifted its training toward cultivating adaptable mindsets. “We want to develop curiosity, critical thinking, and creativity — skills that aren’t easily replaced by AI,” said Prasad, stressing that traditional classroom-style learning is insufficient when the competitive environment demands experimentation and rapid application. Employees are given access to a range of AI tools such as , Google Gemini, and , and encouraged to experiment safely in R&D environments. ... Rather than pulling people out of their daily job for separate training sessions, the company embeds training directly into daily workflows at the points where people are likely to be confronted with the need for learning material. Digital adoption platforms like provide in-system nudges and tips directly in the tools recruiters use, guiding them in real time. Recruiting system training is integrated within the application. Users don’t know they’re interacting with a digital coach that’s training them to use the system and its AI features, such as candidate sourcing, resume analysis, and client outreach, effectively. According to Busch, the payoff is measurable: “How-to” support questions have been reduced 95% since implementing workflow learning.

Digital transformation works best when co-owned — but only if you do it right

All too often, the has gone in alone to the , , or board to argue the benefits of a digital project in order to obtain funding. A sounder approach is to confirm the need for a digital solution to a particular business problem with the CxO in charge of that business area, and to then go in together to the budget meeting so that both the technology and the business values can be effectively presented. Secondly, there is no reason the IT budget must bear the full costs of a co-owned project. ... A first step for CxOs and CIOs toward a new, unified value creation paradigm is to root out the historical roadblocks that stand in the way of executive cooperation. CxOs must fully engage in digital projects from start to finish, and CIOs must be willing to accept co-star (instead of star) billing in projects. Most CIOs are making this shift in thinking, but CxOs still lag in project participation. Second, CIOs must gain CxO hard-dollar budget commitments for digital projects. When both co-fund and advocate for digital projects in front of the board, CEO, and CFO, both have skin in the game. Third, co-assign executive leadership responsibilities for key project milestones. The CxO might be responsible for defining the business use case and what a specific digital solution must deliver, while the CIO might be responsible for developing the solution.

Australian legislators spar with platforms, each other over age assurance laws

If there’s one thing every platform can agree on when it comes to age assurance, it’s that biometric age verification measures are a good idea – but probably just not for them. The latest to suggest that maybe they aren’t subject to the law are and . The companies have reportedly made the case to that there are potential legal workarounds to Australia’s incoming social media regulations, which will prohibit users under 16 from having accounts. ... “We’re doing these things, ultimately, for the good of young people in Australia. It will span television, radio, digital. There will be some on billboards near schools around the country. They’ll see it on TV. They’ll see it online. They’ll see it, ironically, on social media, because until the 10th of December, it is legal for kids to be on social media. And if that’s where they are, that’s where we need to talk to them about what this means and why we’re doing it.” ... There is, in questioning from Senator David Shoebridge of the , an apparent desire to assign blame to age verification providers. He argues that Australia’s privacy laws aren’t yet ready to accommodate such data collection, in that doesn’t include requirements for the deletion of data. He asks about workarounds, like masks and VPNs.

5 Must-Follow Rules of Every Elite SOC: CISO’s Checklist

Even the best analysts can’t detect everything alone. When communication breaks down and teams work in silos, critical context slips away; alerts are missed, work gets repeated, and investigations slow to a crawl. That’s why collaboration has become a core part of modern SOC performance. Inside the , the lets analysts join the same live workspace, share results in real time, and coordinate across roles without switching tools. Team leads can assign tasks, monitor progress, and track productivity; all from a single interface that keeps the team aligned, no matter the time zone. ... Every SOC knows the feeling; too many alerts, too many clicks, not enough time. Analysts lose hours on repetitive actions: opening files, running scripts, clicking through pop-ups, or solving CAPTCHAs just to trigger hidden payloads. With inside the ANY.RUN sandbox, all those steps happen automatically. The system opens malicious links hidden behind , interacts with fake installers, solves CAPTCHAs, and performs other routine actions; no human input needed. The sandbox handles these interactions on its own, exposing every stage of the attack chain in a fraction of the time. ... Even the best detection tools miss things. False negatives happen all the time; a file marked “safe” can still hide malicious behavior deep in its code or trigger only under specific conditions.

Identifying risky candidates: Practical steps for security leaders

Today’s fraudsters and malicious insiders often leave digital breadcrumbs outside a traditional organization’s direct visibility. Hiring teams cannot connect those breadcrumbs on their own, and they should partner with the security team to surface hidden affiliations, past fraudulent activities, or concerning behavioral patterns as a part of the overall candidate assessment. ... Outside-the-firewall checks are especially important in a remote or hybrid work environment where face-to-face verification is limited. The practical takeaway is that companies need to broaden their visibility: the more you combine traditional HR processes with external digital risk signals and collaborate across internal teams, the harder it becomes for a fraudulent candidate to work within your company undetected. ... Employees under stress or facing job insecurity may become more prone to misconduct, either through negligence or malice. Those with declining performance reviews, who are facing disciplinary action, or that have presented resistance to security upgrades are worth closer scrutiny. Employees that give notice of resignation should be keenly watched for unauthorized activity. ... The definition of insider threat is shifting. Where once the focus was on accidental misconfigurations or negligence, today it increasingly includes malicious acts, fraud, and hybrid cases where dissatisfaction or personal pressures drive risky behavior.

CISO Conversations: Are Microsoft’s Deputy CISOs a Signpost to the Future?

Microsoft may be unique in its size and complexity. But the difficulties faced by its CISO, Igor Tsyganskiy, are the same as those faced by all CISOs – just writ much larger. The expansion of the CISO role from governance (security), to include compliance (legal), internal app and external product development (engineering), integration with business leaders (business knowledge and communication skills), artificial intelligence (data scientist) and more, implies the solution adopted Tsyganskiy should be considered by all CISOs. ... It is encouraging that both top Microsoft dCISOs believe that such career success can be achieved by anyone with the right attitude. “Personally, I like to understand technology to a deep level. But it isn’t absolutely essential,” explains Russinovich. “You can delegate things, just like Igor is delegating his need for deep understanding of everything to a pool of dCISOs. Some level of technical understanding will always be crucial, because otherwise you’re just completely disconnected. But I think you can be an effective CISO without being as technically deep as I personally like to be.” Johnson agrees that you can have a successful career in cyber without prior cyber qualifications. “You need to have the aptitude. You need to be willing to learn every day. You need to be willing to accept what you don’t know, and you need to network,” she says.