February 17, 2026
Good morning You,
Yes you, reading this line right now, whomever you are, good morning.
This article from thehackernews.com details the findings of the intelligence division at tech giant Google. The findings indicate that our new axis of cyber evil so to speak (China, Iran, Russia, North Korea) have been some what coordinating their efforts in targeting US defense industry targets.
Now that may not be surprising or necessarily interesting to my typical audience and I will admit that I found it unsurprising myself (although interesting). Interesting because the tactics being used are relevant to all industry and all team sizes.
Allow me to explain:
Some of the tactics in use include leveraging edge devices to create initial access or breach to a network. What does that mean? It means that the printer, wireless access point, or smart speaker you have in your office with default passwords and configurations that have never been changed is a problem....a big problem. Criminals are attacking those factory configured devices today faster and more effectively than ever thanks to AI automation.
Another tactic mentioned focuses on individual team members and the vulnerability that one person can introduce to an organization. Take a moment and think of the team you work with....who is most likely to bring the entire org down because they just don't know any better and let "tech support" who called with an emergency request to reset their password talk them through giving away the keys to the kingdom? Hint: if you cant think of who that might be....its you 🙂
Last but certainly not least the article mentions supply chain targeting and this is one of my favorites because in our industry its so easy to iterate. What vendors can you think of serving your business right now in critical ways that you are more than a little nervous about their security practices? First of all shame shame for already being able to think of three.... but that's ok you are not alone. Vendors are necessary but often times create massive vulnerabilities for our businesses and it is necessary in our modern world to understand and mitigate that risk wherever possible, not turn a blind eye or act like it doesn't exist.
Those attack strategies caught my eye today as I was browsing my morning affirmations (cyber security doom and gloom news feed).
I hope they caught yours as well.
Just out of curiosity where are you viewing this post today? Phone or desk device? Post in the comments if you like.
