Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

5 Themes From a Candid Discussion

The Eskenzi IT Security Analyst & CISO Forum wasn’t a typical security event. This forum was a gathering of CISOs, analysts, and security leaders speaking candidly under Chatham House Rule about what’s actually breaking, what’s working, and where things are heading. Here are 5 key themes that came through loud and clear. None of them were surprising. But together, they paint a pretty stark picture of where security and AI are right now.

How to Build a Security Compliance Audit Process that Works All Year Round

Security compliance audits can feel intimidating, especially if your team has never been through one before. For many organizations, an audit feels like a high-pressure project with a hard deadline, a long list of evidence requests, and a lot of manual work spread across security, IT, legal, and compliance teams. For vendors and companies in highly regulated industries, audits and risk assessments may already be a routine part of doing business.

What Cybersecurity Risks Does CNC Automation Introduce in 2026?

Manufacturing floors are no longer air-gapped environments. As CNC machines connect to networks for automated loading, real-time monitoring, and remote diagnostics, they become potential entry points for cyber attackers targeting industrial operations. Companies like Gimbel Automation are advancing in-machine CNC automation that reduces manual labor and increases throughput. But every connected system, from spindle grippers to pneumatic workholding, needs cybersecurity planning alongside its mechanical engineering.

Exposure as a Competency: How Agentic Exposure Management Can Differentiate High-Performing Teams

In today's fast-paced work environment, the factors that distinguish high-performing teams go well beyond technical skills and traditional leadership. Increasingly, organizations are recognizing "exposure" as a critical competency, one that shapes how teams interact with uncertainty, opportunity, and risk. While exposure has historically been viewed through a financial or risk management lens, it is now emerging as a core driver of organizational agility, innovation, and resilience.

What is Shadow IT?

Shadow IT refers to any technology—including hardware, software, cloud services, SaaS applications, or AI tools—used within an organization without the explicit approval of the IT or security department. Shadow IT is rarely malicious. It is usually the result of employees searching for a means of making their workflows more efficient. When sanctioned corporate tools are perceived as too slow, rigid, or complex, users often "self-serve" by adopting unvetted alternatives to meet their deadlines.

A Critical Look at OpenClaw and NemoClaw

Surprise, surprise, agentic AI is advancing very quickly, and security isn’t quite keeping up. While most attention in recent times has focused on improving model capability, we’ve often been left wondering how to actually make these systems safe enough to trust with real-world tasks and limited interaction. This challenge has become particularly evident with the rise of platforms like OpenClaw, where autonomous agents can execute multi-step actions with minimal human oversight.

SecurityScorecard Weekly Brief: The Adversary Insights Edition with Steve Cobb

This is SecurityScorecard's Weekly Brief: The Adversary Insights Edition with SecurityScorecard's CISO Steve Cobb. Critical infrastructure security in the U.S. remains an important element of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran with Iranian-linked threat actors targeting US-based assets. Iranian threat actors have focused their efforts on the fastest methods of attack by searching for what Cobb calls “low hanging fruit” in critical infrastructure environments where many organizations have exposed systems.

The Future Is Cyber Risk Intelligence

Risk is expanding faster than most organizations can measure it, communicate it, and act on it. The convergence of AI, an ever-expanding attack surface, and deep, often hidden supply chain risks—extending into third-, fourth-, and fifth-party connections—all pose strategic and material risks to companies. Security leaders are ultimately looking for better ways to identify risk, prioritize action, and support stronger risk decisions across the entire business ecosystem.

The NVD Funding Crisis Was Bigger Than Mythos

Everyone is calling Claude Mythos a watershed moment. I’d like to offer a slightly different take. Not because the capability isn’t real, it is. But if Mythos is the moment that finally convinced your organization that rapid vulnerability discovery is an existential threat, you’ve been watching the wrong thing. We saw this coming. Vulnerability Management has been moving in this direction for years, and we built Nucleus with this trajectory in mind. What surprises me is the surprise.