CyberWire Daily

The race for AI dominance has created a dangerous imbalance between business velocity and cyber resilience. In this episode, host Caleb Tolin is joined by Joe Hladik, Head of Rubrik Zero Labs, and Staff Security Researcher Amit Malik to break down the findings of their latest report on agentic adoption. The discussion centers on the Agentic Paradox. This is the technical reality that tools designed to automate high-level tasks are inherently built to find the most efficient path around obstacles, including existing security policies.

A primary focus is implementing a three-layer framework for AI Operations. This model targets the Tool Layer, where agents interact with databases; the Cognitive Layer, which serves as the LLM brain; and the critical Identity Layer. The conversation explores stories in which agents, without malicious intent, have caused catastrophic data loss simply by following an optimized logic path. These instances prove that agents need not be sentient to be destructive when they lack proper human-in-the-loop checkpoints.

Technical hurdles of Identity Resilience are also addressed, specifically the explosion of non-human identities that spin up and down like elastic cloud infrastructure. The episode examines the fear index regarding job security, noting that 92% of leaders fear for their roles post-breach. Joe and Amit join Caleb to explore the evolution of personal liability for CISOs and the urgent need to move from basic visibility to deep observability. This is a forward-looking briefing for leaders who recognize that, in an era of autonomous routines, the human must remain the ultimate command-and-control center.

What You’ll Learn


Define the agentic paradox to understand why AI efficiency naturally compromises traditional security guardrails.


Implement a three-layer framework to secure the tool, cognitive, and identity components of AI.


Transition from basic visibility to deep observability to track autonomous decision-making in real time.


Mitigate prompt injection risks by auditing the input and output flows of the cognitive layer.


Utilize ephemeral containers to sandbox agentic tools and prevent unauthorized database alterations.


Manage the elasticity of non-human identities to maintain control over rapidly spinning AI agents.


Anchor AI operations with human-in-the-loop checkpoints to ensure integrity during high-stakes executions.

Episode Highlights


Defining the Agentic Identity and Autonomous Routines


Revenue vs. Resilience: The Drivers of AI Urgency


The Three-Layer Framework for Agentic Defense


Shadow AI and the Rise of Invisible Insider Threats


The Context Gap: Why Rolling Back AI Actions is Hard


The CISO Fear Index and Personal Liability Post-Breach


Visibility vs. Observability in Elastic Identity Environments

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The Supreme Court weighs geofence warrants. Iran leans toward quieter cyber ops. Researchers unpack Fast16 sabotage malware. Microsoft tracks an Outlook outage. Snow malware moves deep inside networks. Itron reports a breach. SMS blasters hit Canada. Italy extradites an accused hacker to the U.S. Monday business brief. Our guest is Mick Coady, Field CTO of Elisity, on how hospitals can best defend against ransomware attacks. Meta’s relentlessly watchful eye turns inward. 

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CyberWire Guest

We are joined by Mick Coady, former head of cybersecurity for hospitals and Field CTO of Elisity, on how hospitals can defend against ransomware attacks, both online and through devices, including patient monitors, HVAC systems, and any device connected to the Internet.

Selected Reading

Ingenious? Orwellian? Or both? Supreme Court considers constitutionality of 'geofence' warrants (NPR)

Iran’s cyber threat may be less ‘shock and awe’ than ‘low and slow,’ officials say (The Record)

Newly Deciphered Sabotage Malware May Have Targeted Iran’s Nuclear Program—and Predates Stuxnet | WIRED (Wired)

Microsoft says Outlook.com outage is causing sign‑in failures (Bleeping Computer)

Threat actor uses Microsoft Teams to deploy new “Snow” malware (Bleeping Computer)

American utility firm Itron discloses breach of internal IT network (Bleeping Computer)

Toronto police seize 'SMS blasters,' a cybercrime weapon never before seen in Canada (National Post)

Italy Decides to Extradite Chinese Man Wanted by US for Hacking (Bloomberg)

Artemis emerges from stealth with $70 million in funding. (The Cyber Wire)

Meta staff protest surveillance software on work PCs • The Register (The Register)

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The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc.

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Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes.

Adam Marrè, CISO from Arctic Wolf, sits down to share his story of rising through the ranks. After 9/11 he decided he wanted to make a difference in the world, and so he chose to go into the FBI. There he learned the skills that got him to where he is today. In his time at the FBI, he was able to do what he loved, which was working with computers while gaining more knowledge on cybersecurity, and he became computer forensic certified. Ultimately, he needed a change in the end and decided to leave the FBI. He was able to learn the leadership skills he needed to move past that career path and follow a new dream. He is now able to share his passion with the world and help people understand security to help protect themselves as well as helping people finding success in their careers and in their lives. We thank Adam for sharing his story.
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This week, we are joined by Juliana Testa, Senior Security Engineer from 7AI, sharing their work on "Quish Splash - When the QR Code Is the Weapon: A Multi-Wave Phishing Campaign That Slipped Past Every Filter." A large-scale “quishing” campaign used QR codes embedded in image attachments to hide phishing URLs, allowing 28 out of 33 emails to bypass SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and Microsoft Defender and land directly in inboxes.

Each recipient received a unique QR code and tracking ID, defeating traditional detection methods and enabling attackers to scale the campaign to over 1.6 million emails across multiple organizations while shifting execution to less-secure mobile devices. The attack was ultimately uncovered through AI-driven alerting combined with human analysis and threat hunting, highlighting a major blind spot in email security and the need for QR code inspection, mobile protections, and tighter auto-reply controls.

The research and executive brief can be found here:

Quish Splash - When the QR Code Is the Weapon: A Multi-Wave Phishing Campaign That Slipped Past Every Filter.

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Locked Shields wraps another year. Open models challenge Mythos. CISA tracks FIRESTARTER inside a federal agency. The White House targets foreign AI model extraction. Microsoft lets admins remove Copilot. Treasury sanctions a Cambodian scam-compound senator. Breeze Cache rushes a patch. Researchers downplay OT malware hype, while NIST pushes for better OT visibility. Our guest is Eric Russo, Director, SOC Defensive Security at Barracuda, discussing the risks posed by employees downloading pirated software. Con artists charge crypto for counterfeit clearance.

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CyberWire Guest

Our guest is Eric Russo, Director, SOC Defensive Security at Barracuda, discussing the risks posed by employees downloading pirated or cracked software onto corporate devices. You can learn more here.

Selected Reading

Locked Shields 2026: 41 Nations Strengthen Cyber Resilience in World's Biggest Exercise (SecurityWeek)

Open source models can find bugs as well as Mythos (The Register)

CISA: US agency breached through Cisco vulnerability, FIRESTARTER backdoor allowed access through March (The Record)

Trump Administration Vows Crackdown on Chinese Companies 'Exploiting' AI Models Made in US (SecurityWeek)

Microsoft now lets admins uninstall Copilot on enterprise devices (Bleeping Computer)

US sanctions Cambodian senator for millions earned through scam compounds (The Record)

Cloudways Patches Actively Exploited File Upload Flaw in Breeze Cache Plugin (Beyond Machines)

Dragos: Despite AI use, new malware targeting water plants is ‘hype’ (CyberScoop)

NIST cyber center to launch OT ‘visibility’ project (Federal News Network)

Crypto scam lures ships into Strait of Hormuz, falsely promising safe passage (Ars Technica)

Share your feedback.

What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show.

Want to hear your company in the show?

N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry’s most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com.

The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc.
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