Monitoring Matters

If you smell something burning this week don’t be too concerned, it’s probably U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s ears. I really, and I cannot stress this enough, REALLY didn’t want to discuss politics this or any week, but I don’t think we can let such a huge disruption in the security sphere pass by without comment. Operational Security (OPSEC) has been a guiding principle for members of the military since antiquity, and the word has entered the lexicon in...

Alphabet made its largest acquisition yet with a $32 billion deal to buy Wiz, formerly the world’s largest cybersecurity unicorn and now the upcoming face of Google’s cybersecurity ambitions. Alternate blog titles: G-Wiz, or Alphabet, sup? No time to workshop that one I’m afraid as I’m all business to discuss what is likely the biggest news ever for cloud security, or so far at least. Last time we discussed Wiz on this blog, a little more than a year ago, I talked...

How many warning signs are too many? What will it take to secure our cyber-infrastructure? Was "Hackers" Angelina Jolie’s best movie from the 90s? Important questions are being asked in this week’s Monitoring Matters. If you haven’t guessed I’m thinking a lot about cybersecurity this week, and with good cause! I just finished up a wonderful webcast this week discussing important cyber topics with three whip-smart panelists. You can give it watch for yourself by...

This week in industry news, Honeywell honeycombs into three distinct hives full of busy bees, but the buzz around the move indicates a bumble. Last week Honeywell made good on months of speculation that the company would bow to pressures from an activist investor and spun out into three separate divisions. Those divisions are its aerospace, advanced materials, and home automation divisions. So, while this split rolls back the meter a bit on Honeywell’s conglomeration, it is also theoretically...

It was the best of times, but mostly it was the worst of times, especially if you were Nvidia this week following the meteoric rise of AI model DeepSeek and the massacre of the tech company’s market value. After releasing its platform less than two years after forming, DeepSeek quickly made waves in the past month gaining a following of techno-faithful singing the praises of the little chat bot that could. Moreover, they did it for a lot less money than competitors like OpenAI...

This week on Monitoring Matters, the threat of prison violence delivered hot and ready in 30 minutes or less, or else it’s free. At least that’s the concern according to a pair of watchdogs keeping tabs on a pair of England high-security prisons. In a report by the BBC, Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor told government officials that weapon smuggling using drones was now commonplace thanks to a lax airspace being maintained above the maximum-security facilities. While the...

If you’re reading this, congratulations! You made it to 2025, and that means you get to set about fulfilling whatever resolutions you’ve made. Time to hit the gym, or pick up that instrument, you know, all the classics. One of my personal resolutions this year is covering news in the security industry that gets overlooked or receives less consideration among other more popular topics. I was inspired by our 2025 predictions article where Stephen Burd, vice president of Essence Security,...

To paraphrase a popular children’s cartoon of the past few decades, “If I had a nickel for every time I discussed an assassination on this blog, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.”  Last week, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was gunned down by an assassin on his way to an investor meeting. I could lay out the moral implications at great length in this blog, but that’s not terribly important...

I was going to write about 2025 predictions this week, but in the spirit of not supporting Christmas music and decorations hitting stores before Thanksgiving is over, I’m going to let that topic stew a while longer. Instead, I wanted to touch briefly this week on tariffs. If you’ve been following any sort of news, then I’m certain that’s come up in some fashion. I don’t usually linger on political topics in this blog for the same reason you shouldn’t lick the...

Not to distract the masses from any other topics that may be occupying their thoughts, but in the blog this week I really am going to talk about bread. There’s a new ransomware group making the rounds lately and if you’re wondering what they’ve done to be singled out among a sea of cyber ne’er-do-wells then I’d have to say, it’s probably their preferred form of payment. A group calling itself Hellcat has claimed to have compromised Schneider Electric, a French...