Editor: Craig Taylor
I started 30 years ago in Cybersecurity working for a firewall company (Border Network Technologies later bought by Secure Computing). Back then the WWW did not exist, email was a text based tool that was opening communications like never before. My psychology degree didn’t help me much initially, but those O’Reilly books – well they became my bibles. TCP/IP, DNS & Bind, SMTP, does anyone reading this remember active vs. passive FTP?
Back to firewalls. In the late 1990s we spent too much time convincing people and companies connecting their internal networks (Token Ring, IPX/SPX, Vines, NetBeui, Appletalk) to the Internet, that a firewall was a minimum essential security requirement. At the time, firewalls were split into two camps – slower, arguably more secure proxy-based firewalls and faster throughput stateful-inspection firewalls. They were the major security perimeter protecting most companies pre and post-WWW. When a firewall had a security issue, the highest priority in anyone’s world was patching and mitigating that risk.
With Frontier Models systematically testing software, including firewalls, with more capabilities than any human ever had, it’s no wonder we’re seeing an enormous increase in the vulnerability discovered and patches released over the last 5 months of 2026! Major vendors have been releasing not double or triple of patches, but closer to between 5x and 20x more patches!
That’s the context with which CyberHoot wrote about two recent zero-days found in SonicWall’s firewall. They are not the only Firewall vendor to have zero-days, rather, they are emblematic of a recent explosion in Frontier AI penetration testing and vulnerability identification. This is the early waves of a storm that’s coming. The storm could be a category 5 hurricane leading to more breaches than we’ve seen in recent history. According to this Five Eyes advisory, we have months to prepare, not years.
CyberHoot’s advice to all of you is to complete an AI readiness assessment (Email AIReadiness@CyberHoot.com and we’ll send one to you). That assessment goes a little beyond the following 6 things you should start with:
Hope this helps,
Craig Taylor, Editor
Our second blog article explores how organizations are embracing AI without creating unnecessary security and privacy risks. Blocking AI entirely is rarely practical, but ignoring its use isn’t the answer either. Clear guidelines, employee education, and thoughtful controls can help teams take advantage of AI while keeping sensitive company, customer, and employee information protected.
From there, we turn to a different technology raising important questions about privacy and trust: Flock cameras. License plate recognition and similar monitoring technologies can provide valuable security benefits, but they also highlight a lesson that applies to businesses of every size. Collecting data creates responsibility. Customers and employees increasingly want to know what information organizations collect, how it is used, who can access it, and how long it is retained. Review and update your Privacy Policy calling out LLM usage, training, and the security, privacy, confidentiality of the data you collect from your customers in it.
Both stories share a common theme: new technology can deliver tremendous value, but trust depends on how responsibly that technology is used. Whether your organization is adopting AI tools or collecting customer and operational data, transparency, thoughtful policies, and strong security practices are essential.
This month, we encourage you to:
Craig CEO,
Co-Founder, CyberHoot
CyberHoot has officially achieved a long-standing goal of being featured on the legendary “Security Now!” podcast with Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson. To be 100% clear, this is a paid sponsorship of the podcast.
In addition to that, Leo Laporte personally endorsed CyberHoot:
“When we got phished [before CyberHoot] it became pretty clear we needed to do more to protect our company. The same old training just wasn’t working. CyberHoot came to the rescue. It’s fun, our team loves it, and best of all, it’s helping to keep us safe. Hoot on!” — Leo Laporte
Please watch this quick 3-minute feature as Leo Laporte shares his experience with HootPhish and explains why CyberHoot’s positive reinforcement approach to phishing education caught his attention.
Liking CyberHoot? We need your help. Please leave us your review at G2.com!
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We’re excited to share several new additions to our Partner Integrations page, making it easier for partners to connect CyberHoot with the tools they already use every day. These new integrations help streamline client and user syncing, simplify training management, and make it easier to keep documentation up to date across your systems.
“Our partners asked us to meet them inside the tools they already use every day, so that’s what we did. Partners sync clients and users into CyberHoot in minutes, and view training progress inside their existing tools. This means less manual work, automated billing, better retention, lower costs, and safer clients!” said Craig Taylor, CISSP, CEO and Co-Founder of CyberHoot.
New integrations are now available for HaloPSA, Autotask PSA, ConnectWise PSA, Hudu, and IT Glue. Whether you’re looking to sync companies and users into CyberHoot for training or publish tenant training status directly into your documentation platform, these integrations are designed to reduce manual work and help you manage your clients more efficiently.
We’ve been quietly building the largest upgrade to cyber awareness gamification in CyberHoot history — and it’s going to change how your users experience training. Think points you can actually earn, achievements worth bragging about, avatars, leaderboards, and a whole new way to show off your organization’s cyber strength.
Complete your training. Report those phish. Every action is about to count like never before.
Stay tuned — the flock is about to take flight.
Please note: CyberHoot is upgrading all Power Users to Autopilot for free. Contact support@cyberhoot.com to schedule your free upgrade. Power platform will be retired later this year Sept. 2026.
Dark Web Monitoring is the continuous process of scanning hidden online marketplaces, forums, data dumps, and criminal websites for stolen information related to an organization, such as email addresses, passwords, customer data, financial information, or intellectual property.
The goal is to detect exposed credentials or sensitive information early so organizations can respond before cybercriminals exploit it.
Unlike actively searching the dark web yourself, dark web monitoring services automatically monitor known sources where cybercriminals buy, sell, and share stolen data and alert organizations when their information appears.
Enroll in CyberHoot’s Referral Program today and start earning a 20% share of all revenue generated for one year by those who register through your exclusive referral link. As a referral partner, not only will you receive financial rewards, but you’ll also experience the satisfaction of aiding others in becoming more security-conscious, safeguarding them against cyber threats. Don’t hesitate, sign up now at https://cyberhoot.com/referral-program/.
Referral through Autopilot’s Dashboard:
Join CyberHoot in our mission to create a more aware and better secured world! Recommend CyberHoot Autopilot to a friend, and they will enjoy a complimentary first month. For every new sign up who uses your referral link, you will receive a free month added to your account. This offer is exclusively for first-time CyberHoot registrants.
Know someone who had a close call recently with a cyber attack, phishing email, or social engineering phone call? Recommend CyberHoot’s free cybersecurity training. They’ll receive six (6) videos (each video is 3-4min.) and one of our positive reinforcement, hyper-realistic, phishing simulations. All for free.
Registration: https://cyberhoot.com/individuals
CyberHoot White Paper Download – How HootPhish Improves upon AttackPhish
All New: 2025 Infographics on Cybersecurity Statistics
Discover and share the latest cybersecurity trends, tips and best practices – alongside new threats to watch out for.
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