Editor’s note: Small firms frequently turn to Stephanie Otero, CPA, the AICPA’s small firm advocate, with questions.
But there are practical steps sole practitioners and small firms can take to strengthen their defenses.
Although cybersecurity requires a layered approach, if I had to prioritize one action for sole practitioners, it would be implementing multifactor authentication (MFA) on every business-critical system.
Once cybercriminals obtain login credentials, they may be able to access email accounts, cloud applications, client portals, and firm data.
(To learn more, see, “Enhance the Client Experience with Two Simple Shifts,” AICPA & CIMA Professional Insights, June 8, 2026.)
Oct 1, 2026 · via journalofaccountancy.com
McGuiggan said AI can create cybersecurity vulnerabilities not just from an outsider successfully hacking a company, whether driven by AI or not, but through internal use of an AI tool that goes awry.
“You know that your users are going to be leveraging AI capability,” McGuiggan said.
Maybe they’re with a carrier; maybe they’re providing cybersecurity services to companies trying to figure out how not to be a mark.
Melanie Padron addresses the NMFTA cybersecurity conference.
She said her company is reviewing several AI tools that are targeted toward the “shadow AI” issues referred to by McGuiggan.
Oct 1, 2026 · via freightwaves.com
Bitdefender, a European-based company, announced a partnership with Aruba S.p.A., one of Italy’s IT, cloud and data center providers, to host its cybersecurity platform on Aruba’s cloud infrastructure.
The partnership delivers sovereign cybersecurity, ensuring customer and configuration data, security events, and telemetry are never accessible, transferred, or processed outside the European Union (EU).
As part of the partnership, Aruba will resell Bitdefender’s entire portfolio of business security products and services covering threat prevention, protection, detection, and response.
Central to the partnership is Bitdefender GravityZone, the company’s unified security, risk analytics, and compliance platform, hosted on Aruba’s cloud environment.
This announcement builds on Bitdefender’s broader commitment to European data sovereignty, following strategic partnerships with OVHcloud in France and secunet in Germany.
Oct 1, 2026 · via industrialcyber.co
Cybersecurity Awareness Month that comes around every October has entered a tumultuous 2026.
Read the takes from industry experts on Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2026 in this Cyber Magazine Reacts feature.
Dan Lohrmann, Field CISO, Public Sector at Presidio Reacts: This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, everyone is understandably very concerned about AI risks.
Rob Gregory, CISO at Optiv Reacts: I believe Cyber Awareness Month (CAM) is a valuable amplifier and another reminder about the importance we all place in an organisation’s cybersecurity risk management programme.
Jack Cherkas, Global CISO at Syntax Reacts: Cybersecurity Awareness Month is usually a reminder to get the fundamentals right, and that is still absolutely critical.
Oct 1, 2026 · via cybermagazine.com
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Prerit Pathak, a 28-year-old security engineer at Google in New York City.
I think some people mistakenly believe that being a 'tech employee' is synonymous with being a software engineer.
Despite that interest, I started my career as a software engineer at Dell Technologies in India.
Now, as a security engineer, I create and run threat simulations to replicate adversary behavior in enterprise environments.
Looking back, making the shift from software engineering to cybersecurity was a leap of faith.
Oct 1, 2026 · via businessinsider.com
Fact sheet: food and agriculture cybersecurity checklist and resources https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/food-and-agriculture-cybersecurity-checklist-and-resources (2025).
Farooq, M. S., Riaz, S., Abid, A., Abid, K. & Naeem, M. A.
Jones, R. & Feoktistov, D. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the food supply chain and their impact on food security: a systematic literature review.
Smart Food Syst.
Grispos, G., Mears, L., Loucks, L. & Mahoney, W. Cultivating cybersecurity: designing a cybersecurity curriculum for the food and agriculture sector.
Oct 1, 2026 · via nature.com
GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Many people turn to artificial intelligence for advice on their health, money and relationships.
Cybersecurity experts warn what users type could be exposing their most sensitive information.
Users describe how they use AI Chris D’Amico, who spoke with FOX Carolina in downtown Greenville, uses AI chatbots for work and personal questions.
“They’re really treating AI like a confidant, and they’re sharing vulnerable topics about health, finance, relationships, major life decisions,” Clayton said.
Clayton said to keep passwords, bank information and Social Security numbers out of AI chats.
Oct 1, 2026 · via foxcarolina.com
Today, we’re announcing our new frontier model, Gemini 4 Argon, which is rolling out to a set of trusted cyber defenders through our Fairwind Program.
Built to sustain deep reasoning across complex, long-horizon workflows, Argon is fundamentally changing the way we work and build at Google.
Leading in defensive cybersecurity To better equip cyber defenders for the new era of cyberattacks, we trained Gemini 4 Argon to be highly capable at cybersecurity defense.
Gemini 4 Argon demonstrates impressive leaps in vulnerability discovery over 3.8 Flash Cyber.
Through automated red teaming and adversarial training, Gemini 4 Argon is leading in prompt injection robustness on the Gray Swan’s Indirect Prompt Injection (IPI) benchmark.
Sep 30, 2026 · via blog.google
In today’s cybersecurity news… Microsoft details new Star Blizzard and NeedyMantis activity Microsoft Threat Intelligence published two threat reports this week.
The first covers Russian actor Star Blizzard, which CISA ties to the country’s FSB intelligence service.
(Microsoft, Microsoft) Cloudflare to become a public certificate authority Cloudflare has announced plans to become a public certificate authority that will issue both traditional certificates and post-quantum Merkle Tree Certificates, or MTCs.
What’s new is that Cloudflare is moving from a Chrome experiment to running its own CA.
One optimization for this new model was reducing so-called “model laziness,” where a model would give up on tasks.
Sep 30, 2026 · via cisoseries.com
Microsoft, the UAE Cyber Security Council (CSC) and Core42, a G42 company, today announced plans to deploy MDASH, Microsoft’s AI-powered cybersecurity capability, across UAE government entities.
MDASH uses advanced AI models and automated analysis to identify vulnerabilities, prioritize risks and improve security posture at speed and scale.
Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security for the UAE Government, said: “Code safety is a national priority and a cornerstone of cyber resilience.
Together with the UAE Cyber Security Council and Core42, we will help government organizations strengthen resilience, improve cyber readiness and build capacity for emerging threats.”
Talal M. Al Kaissi, Chief Executive Officer, Core42 said:“The UAE has made a deliberate choice to lead in AI adoption.
Sep 30, 2026 · via news.microsoft.com
October marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month, an annual awareness campaign intended to encourage greater safety and protection among all computer users.
It was launched in 2004 by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Cybersecurity: A shared responsibility In today’s interconnected world, cybersecurity is not just for IT professionals.
Advanced protection for evolving threats Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a great time to reflect on everyday habits.
As cyberattacks grow in complexity, combining smart habits with proactive security solutions is essential.
Sep 30, 2026 · via pandasecurity.com
Chinese state-linked firms hold stakes in more than 30 European port terminals, including facilities designated to receive U.S. military forces and equipment.
The military mobility challenge in Europe can thus be understood across four interconnected dimensions: physical infrastructure constraints, regulatory and investment shortfalls, technology modernization and cybersecurity gaps, and Chinese influence over Europe’s critical infrastructure.”
The FDD reported that Europe’s military mobility vulnerabilities are compounded by the growing strategic footprint of Chinese state-linked entities across critical transportation and logistics infrastructure, energy infrastructure, and communications networks.
The central fix is aligning investment with NATO reinforcement plans, and the six recommendations move from foundational reforms to targeted measures.
A corridor’s NATO or EU military mobility designation should trigger national security consultation, with particular scrutiny of state-linked actors like China.
Sep 30, 2026 · via industrialcyber.co
Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman warned banks on Sept. 29 to buffer their systems against artificial intelligence threats while emphasizing the technology can benefit lenders.
“AI offers great potential — both to threat actors and those buttressing their defenses to those threats,” Bowman said in prepared remarks for an event in Colorado.
Bowman previously said the Fed should “not micromanage” banks on issues like AI as US officials weigh the impact of the rapidly evolving technology.
The Fed’s top bank cop also said although cybersecurity requires proactive risk management by bank boards of directors and senior management, regulators recognize that preparing for such threats can be burdensome and challenging for community banks.
Photo: Michelle Bowman, vice chair for supervision at the US Federal Reserve.
Sep 30, 2026 · via insurancejournal.com
Schneider Electric, a global energy technology leader, and SECLAB, a French provider of OT cybersecurity solutions, announced an expanded collaboration to give industrial infrastructure a level of protection that goes beyond software-only defenses.
To strengthen defense in depth for industrial systems, Schneider Electric has chosen to deepen its collaboration with SECLAB.
This collaboration has produced a dedicated configuration for securing Schneider Electric OT protocols.
Tests conducted on Schneider Electric platforms confirmed application-level filtering, proper operation in redundant configurations, and no perceptible latency for the process.
Several industrial companies whose operations depend on continuous OT service availability are already engaged in deployments supported by Schneider Electric.
Sep 29, 2026 · via industrialcyber.co
Even after instructions explicitly said anything not listed was out of scope, Astra still launched full attacks in 4 of 49 runs.
(UK AI Security Institute) Dutch police arrest “reformed” hacker in ShinyHunters probe Dutch authorities arrested 23-year-old Pepijn van der Stap, according to sources who spoke with KrebsOnSecurity.
ShinyHunters escalated with attacks against the FBI’s jobs site and the Clop ransomware gang.
(KrebsOnSecurity) Nvidia builds a browser for AI agents Nvidia released a new Open Agent Safety Platform meant to keep AI agents inside their guardrails.
UpGuard says the exposures span the globe and have grown alongside rapid app development, including projects built with AI coding tools.
Sep 29, 2026 · via cisoseries.com
Marlink and the Nordic Maritime Cyber Resilience Centre (NORMA Cyber) have launched a combined service linking fleet-wide cyber threat monitoring with incident response, with Höegh Autoliners among the first operators to deploy it across its entire fleet.
The service combines NORMA Cyber's independent security monitoring and initial threat analysis with Marlink's maritime cybersecurity and incident response capabilities.
NORMA Cyber analyses and triages potential threats before escalating incidents requiring action onboard to Marlink's cyber specialists for investigation, containment and remediation.
Höegh Autoliners is using NORMA Cyber's monitoring alongside connectivity, IT and cybersecurity services provided through the Marlink Possibility Platform.
NORMA Cyber has more than 180 members representing over 3,000 vessels and offshore units.
Sep 29, 2026 · via marinelink.com
The Agentic SOC Alliance, for example, is a coalition of 15 cybersecurity vendors founded in July.
A recent lab exercise at ExtraHop illustrates the real-world need for multi-model flexibility, according to Paul Giorgi, vice president of global engineering.
Bypassing third-party guardrails with open-weight models While multi-model routing offers operational flexibility, other vendors are taking model control a step further by building directly on open-weight foundations.
CrowdStrike -- a member of the Agentic SOC Alliance, along with ExtraHop -- recently debuted SafeMind, an agentic harness-model system with complementary red-team and blue-team capabilities.
As vendors balance multi-model frameworks with specialized open-weight deployments, resilience is likely to hinge on keeping AI execution layers fluid and adaptable.
Sep 29, 2026 · via techtarget.com
The findings suggest businesses are not abandoning AI, but are entering a more cautious phase in which AI risk management, responsible AI governance and internal confidence will determine the pace of adoption.
“Companies still see enormous opportunity, but enterprise AI adoption is now being shaped by cybersecurity risk, regulatory uncertainty and a growing trust gap inside organisations.”
AI governance is still immature: Only 17% of companies have governance frameworks that are more than two years old.
In Spain, 48% prioritise greater investment in AI safety and skills, while mandatory AI risk disclosure leads in Ireland at 42% and Belgium at 45%.
About FTI Consulting FTI Consulting, Inc. is a leading global expert firm for organisations facing crisis and transformation, with more than 8,100 employees located in 32 countries and territories as of June 30, 2026.
Sep 29, 2026 · via fticommunications.com
Cybersecurity Analyst Creyos | Canada | On-site – View job details As a Cybersecurity Analyst, you will assess security risks across applications, networks and infrastructure, test controls, and help teams fix vulnerabilities.
Cybersecurity Analyst Eastman | India | On-site – View job details As a Cybersecurity Analyst, you will plan and conduct authorized penetration tests and red team exercises across networks, applications, APIs, cloud systems and endpoints.
Get weekly updates on new cybersecurity job openings.
Cybersecurity Specialist CEF Industries | USA | On-site – View job details As a Cybersecurity Specialist, you will manage daily security operations, investigate alerts, support incident response, and coordinate with security providers until issues are resolved.
Senior Cybersecurity Operations Analyst DEFEND | New Zealand | Hybrid – View job details As a Senior Cybersecurity Operations Analyst, you will investigate threats across endpoint, identity, cloud, network, application and AI environments.
Sep 29, 2026 · via helpnetsecurity.com
However, the scale of the vulnerability management challenge is currently all-consuming.
Companies must understand and control how vendors deploy AI through the whole life of a contract, including midcycle changes and fourth-party exposure.
How leaders are adapting cybersecurity to the AI era Of course, AI is not just a tool for attackers.
While AI-enabled vulnerability management is still at an early stage, leading companies are making progress.
Other cybersecurity leaders are now pushing their DevOps teams to spend more time finding and mitigating vulnerabilities.
Sep 29, 2026 · via bain.com