Cybersecurity beyond blocking: A call for collaboration Residential proxies and AI-detected zero-day vulnerabilities pose major 2026 cybersecurity threats, writes one IT leader. Traditional blocking fails; global collaboration is needed. This is no time for complacency on the cybersecurity front, as two major security threats are shaking the industry in 2026. They are posed by residential proxies, which have global footprints through every major home network provider, and the recent revelation of AI models capable of identifying zero-day vulnerabilities in every major software distribution far faster than the industry is ready or capable of addressing them. While they are not strictly new attack types, they are raising threat levels by orders of magnitude. Traditional approaches to operational security generally fall into some form of blocking or limiting. Those don't work here, by design or by scale. It's not possible to block or limit enough of the potential threat without significantly affecting usability of the internet as a whole. To address the threats, we must look at the basic attack problems they are amplifying, and bring more solutions to bear by working collaboratively. Residential proxies Residential proxies are specifically designed to blend in with and be covered by unpatterned daily network traffic from residential IP addresses, meaning they often go undetected for long periods. Unlike malware infections that rely on gaining access through security lapses, residential proxy software is often willingly brought into home networks through the lure of cheap VPN connections or on consumer devices like TVs. Once established across all major ISPs, these proxy networks can be used to carry out DDoS attacks of untraceable origin, or even more sophisticated attack campaigns such as Salt Typhoon. Even when the attacks are detected, blocking them is difficult, because they are likely to be scattered throughout an ISP's IP address space. Plus,