A Practical Checklist for Identity and Access Controls
Disabled accounts can leave active access behind. Use this practical identity and access checklist to inventory permissions, assign owners, and verify that security controls work.
Insights
Read Bart McDonough's latest thinking on AI, cybersecurity, leadership, strategy, and culture.
Published insights
Before You Scale AI: Five Controls That Protect Your Business
Before scaling AI, establish controls that protect sensitive data, clarify accountability, and limit unintended actions. Learn how to build safer, sustainable business adoption.
Leadership That Scales: Clear Decisions, Accountable Teams, and Responsible Innovation
Strong teams need more than talent. Discover how clear priorities, explicit decision rights, and accountable leadership help organizations scale and innovate responsibly.
Cybersecurity Basics: Five Practical Steps to Protect Your Accounts and Business
A routine email or delayed update can put your business at risk. Discover five practical cybersecurity steps to strengthen account access, protect data, and prepare for recovery.
Why Did We Acquire a Cybersecurity Firm? The Business Case—and What Customers Should Expect
Why acquire a cybersecurity firm? Explore Agio’s business rationale, the challenge of integrating IT and security, and what customers should expect beyond a broader service catalog.
Brilliance in the Basics #1: The Power of Two-Factor Authentication
A stolen password shouldn't unlock your digital life. Learn how two-factor authentication protects accounts, where it falls short, and why stronger methods and safe recovery matter.
Detection and Response First, Prevention Second: A Practical Cybersecurity Strategy
What happens when cybersecurity safeguards fail? Learn how to prioritize detection, response, and recovery while keeping essential prevention measures firmly in place.
Brilliance in the Basics: An Essential Cybersecurity Guide for Everyone
Protect your digital life without unnecessary complexity. Learn how to secure email, stop reusing passwords, strengthen sign-ins, and prioritize the accounts that matter most.
Why You Need a Password Manager: A Cybersecurity Must-Have
Reusing passwords puts more than one account at risk. Learn how a password manager creates unique credentials, protects your vault, and makes stronger security practical.
Spear Phishing: A Threat to Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms
Trusted emails can conceal costly fraud. Learn how hedge funds and private equity firms can protect payment instructions, investor data and deal communications from spear phishing.
Ransomware Prevention Simplified: Protect Your Files and Your Business
Could your backups survive a ransomware attack? Learn practical ways to protect accounts, isolate recovery copies, and prepare your files and business for a safer recovery.
Could Someone Hack a Private Equity Firm From Its Lobby?
Could a visitor in reception access a private equity firm’s confidential data? Explore how weak security boundaries create risk—and why entering the office should never mean digital trust.
Office 365 for Hedge Funds and Private Equity: A Practical Microsoft 365 Guide
Microsoft 365 success goes beyond a subscription. Learn how hedge funds and private equity firms can align licensing, security, and compliance with investment workflows.
Private Equity vs. Hedge Funds: Which Is Harder to Secure?
Private equity faces portfolio-wide security complexity; hedge funds face time-critical disruption. Explore how scope, control, and operational dependencies shape cyber risk.
The Four Dimensions of Cybersecurity That Really Matter
Cybersecurity takes more than email filters. Discover how people, processes, technology, and governance work together to prevent costly mistakes and strengthen business resilience.
5 Best Practices to Prepare Your Firm for Cybersecurity Compliance Regulations in 2026
Can your firm prove its cybersecurity controls work? Explore five compliance practices for 2026, from mapping financial-sector regulations to documenting controls and accountability.
Lost Laptops, Lost Data: What to Do Now—and How to Protect Yourself Next Time
Lost your laptop? Learn what to report, how to locate and lock your device, and why encryption and backups play different roles in protecting your data and recovering files.
IT and Cybersecurity Teams Need to Work Together: A Practical Guide
When uptime and security collide, who decides? Learn how IT and cybersecurity teams can align priorities, assign ownership, and make risk decisions that protect critical business services.
Can AI Crack 51% of Passwords in Under a Minute? What PassGAN Really Shows
Can AI really crack 51% of passwords in under a minute? Explore what the PassGAN benchmark measured, where its claims fall short, and why account security is more nuanced.
How to Stop Wire Transfer Fraud: Prevention and Emergency Response
A familiar email can hide a costly scam. Learn how to verify wire instructions, prevent payment fraud, and act immediately if you have already sent money to a criminal.
Detect Phishing 101: How to Spot a Scam Before You Click
A familiar sender or polished email can still hide a scam. Learn how to spot phishing red flags, inspect links, and verify suspicious requests before you click.
Protecting Your Privacy: How to Prevent Unwanted Tracking by Loved Ones
Unwanted location tracking can hide in shared accounts, apps, and devices. Learn how to review access, use iPhone Safety Check, and put your safety first.
Why Do Clients Call Us? Turning IT and Cybersecurity Problems Into Clear Business Decisions
From recurring outages to uncertain cyber risk, learn when to call an IT and cybersecurity adviser—and how to turn technical problems into accountable business decisions.
Brilliance in the Basics #4: Endpoint Protection
Endpoint protection takes more than antivirus. Learn how device inventories, security updates, and clear response ownership help individuals and small businesses reduce risk.
Still Using the Same Three Passwords From Five Years Ago? Here’s How to Break the Habit
Still recycling the same passwords? Learn why reuse—not age—is the real risk, and how passkeys, a password manager, and multifactor authentication can protect your accounts.
Brilliance in the Basics #2: Diverse Passwords for Every Account
One reused password can turn a single breach into multiple account takeovers. Learn how unique passwords, a password manager, MFA, and passkeys help protect your digital life.
Press & Media: Bart McDonough
Connect with Bart McDonough for expert perspectives on AI and cybersecurity. Find media contacts, speaking inquiry details, and biographical background for your next story.
Internet Explorer Zero-Day CVE-2018-8653: What Happened and What to Do Now
An old Internet Explorer zero-day in a security scan? Learn what CVE-2018-8653 means today, why legacy components matter, and how to verify patches without panic.
The Truth About Public Wi-Fi: What’s Safe, What Isn’t, and When to Use a VPN
Public Wi-Fi isn’t automatically unsafe. Learn what HTTPS protects, what network operators can still see, and why fake hotspots remain a risk—even on encrypted connections.
Why Are Institutional Investors Embracing the Cloud and Stronger Cyber Controls Now?
Institutional investors need more than flexible cloud capacity. Discover why stronger cyber controls, data permissions and AI governance matter for investment resilience.
Digital Value Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Your digital assets are worth more than their price tags. Learn how personal value, privacy, and the consequences of losing control can guide smarter cybersecurity priorities.
SEC Warns About Vendor Payments: How to Prevent Payment-Redirection Fraud
A real invoice can still send your money to a criminal. Learn what the SEC’s vendor-payment fraud warning means and why verifying bank-account changes matters.
5 Growing Cyber Risks Facing Hedge Fund and Private Equity Firms
Fraudulent wire requests, account takeovers, and AI data leaks threaten investment firms. Explore five cyber risks and practical ways to protect payments and confidential data.
Cybersecurity: The Business Discipline Behind Trust
Cybersecurity isn’t just IT—it’s a business discipline for protecting revenue, operations, and reputation. Learn how resilience, risk, and identity shape modern defense.
AI Isn’t Magic—It’s Leverage (and Liability) at Scale
AI is inevitable—but speed without governance creates costly mistakes. Learn how to operationalize AI responsibly, secure it by design, and measure outcomes at scale.
Cybersecurity: Building Digital Resilience in an Era of Constant Disruption
Cybersecurity is now a core business discipline. Learn how to build resilience—reduce risk, limit blast radius, and recover fast amid ransomware, phishing, and AI-driven threats.
Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Use It Safely
AI is now the operating system for modern business. Learn what AI really is, how it works, and how to adopt generative AI with governance and security.
Cybersecurity Today: How to Build Real Resilience in a World That Won’t Slow Down
Cybersecurity is now a leadership and trust challenge. Learn a practical, defensible approach to reduce real risk with fundamentals that stand up to boards, regulators, and attackers.
Cybersecurity in 2026: How to Protect What Matters Without Slowing the Business
Cybersecurity in 2026 is a business survival discipline. Learn a practical, executable strategy to prevent breaches, detect fast, respond well, and recover without bureaucracy.
Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Use It Safely
AI is now a daily business tool—and a new risk surface. Learn what AI is (and isn’t), where it creates value, and how to adopt generative AI with governance and security.
Cybersecurity in 2026: How to Build Resilience When Attacks Are Inevitable
In 2026, cybersecurity is about staying operational through inevitable incidents. Learn how to reduce risk, prioritize identity threats, and build true resilience.
AI Isn’t Magic—It’s Leverage
AI isn’t a miracle or a menace—it’s leverage. Learn how predictive, generative, and agentic AI work, where they fail, and how to deploy them with governance and rigor.
Cybersecurity: How to Protect Your Business in a World That Never Stops Attacking
Cybersecurity is now a survival issue. Learn today’s biggest threats—ransomware, BEC, and identity attacks—and the practical steps leaders can take to reduce risk fast.
AI in the Real World: How to Capture Value Without Creating New Risk
AI is now a board-level expectation—but unmanaged use creates new risk. Learn how to drive measurable ROI with practical AI use cases and strong governance.
Cybersecurity in 2026: A Practical Playbook for Defending Modern Organizations
Cybersecurity in 2026 is a business discipline, not just IT. Learn a practical playbook to reduce real risk with identity controls, ransomware readiness, and fast recovery.
Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Use It Responsibly
AI is already embedded in business—and it can amplify results or risk. Learn what AI really is, where it delivers value, what can go wrong, and how to adopt it responsibly.
Cybersecurity in 2026: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, and What to Do About It
Cybersecurity in 2026 is a business survival discipline. Learn how attacks happen now—identity compromise, misconfigurations, vendors, ransomware—and what to do.
Cybersecurity: The Business-Critical Discipline That Keeps Evolving
Cybersecurity is no longer an IT afterthought. Learn why it’s a business-critical operating discipline and how modern threats demand risk reduction and fast recovery.
AI in 2026: From Buzzword to Business-Critical Capability
AI is now business-critical. Learn how to adopt it safely and at scale—avoiding data exposure, compliance gaps, and unreliable outcomes through governance and controls.
Cybersecurity in 2026: The Practical Playbook for Protecting Your Business
Cybersecurity is now a core business discipline. Learn the 2026 playbook to reduce exposure, stop ransomware, prevent credential theft, and recover fast.
AI: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Use It Without Losing Control
AI is reshaping decisions, operations, and risk. Learn what AI really is, how modern models work, and how to adopt them with governance and verification.
Claude Code Having Its Moment
Claude Code is reshaping daily software delivery by collapsing complexity—helping teams ship faster, navigate large codebases, and bake security into the build-test-fix loop.
Understanding the MongoDB Security Flaw: A Call to Action for Business Leaders
Discover the rising security risks of MongoDB and learn actionable steps for business leaders to protect against ransomware and misconfigurations.
Holiday Deepfake Scams: How Leaders Stop Fast Fraud
Deepfake voice and video scams spike during the holidays. Learn the top fraud tactics and a practical 48-hour checklist leaders can use to prevent wire fraud and credential theft.
The Basics and Importance of Using Face ID to Secure Your iPhone
Learn how Apple’s Face ID protects your iPhone with biometric security, why it’s safer than passcodes, and the key settings and habits to maximize protection.
How to Contact Law Enforcement After a Cyberattack (and When to Call Local Police vs. the FBI)
Cyberattack response isn’t just technical—knowing when to call local police vs. the FBI can preserve evidence, improve recovery odds, and reduce business damage.
The Cyber Attack Vectors That Matter Most
Most compromises start at the endpoint—not the data center. Learn the top modern attack vectors behind tracking, credential theft, fraud, and silent data loss.
AI Agent Predictions for 2026: Week-Long Autonomous Tasks?
Will AI agents run week-long tasks without humans by 2026? Explore the breakthroughs in memory and multimodal AI—and the trust, reliability, and governance hurdles ahead.
2025 Cybersecurity Year in Review: AI-Powered Threats and Record Breaches
2025 saw AI-driven phishing, adaptive malware, and record breaches like the $1.4B Bybit heist—making cybersecurity a boardroom priority for every organization.
Digital Minimalism for CEOs
The modern executive operates in an environment of relentless digital noise—emails flood inboxes, notifications clamor for attention, and endless streams of information compete for brain space. For CE...
Google Gemini 3 and Agent Development Kit: The Open Source Push
Google unveils Gemini 3 and the open-source Agent Development Kit, signaling a major shift toward agentic, multimodal AI that can autonomously execute complex tasks.
Adobe's AI Platform: Agents for Campaign Execution
Adobe’s 2025 AI agents automate personalization, content creation, and real-time optimization—helping marketers execute hyper-targeted campaigns at scale with less overhead.
Russia Surges Attacks on Ukraine: 70% Increase in Cyber Operations
Russian cyber operations against Ukraine jumped 70%, using AI-driven phishing, modular ransomware, and supply-chain hacks—urgent lessons for critical infrastructure defense.
Microsoft Ignite 2025: Foundry, Azure Copilot, and Agentic Retrieval
Microsoft Ignite 2025 unveils Foundry IQ, Azure Copilot agents, and Agentic Retrieval—new enterprise AI tools that accelerate collaboration, automation, and decisions.
30,000 Vulnerabilities in 2024: The Patch Management Crisis
A 17% increase in disclosed vulnerabilities creates an impossible patch management challenge. Prioritization strategies that work.
AI Agent Frameworks Compared: LangChain vs CrewAI vs AutoGen
A comprehensive comparison of the leading AI agent frameworks. Choosing the right tool for your enterprise needs.
DoorDash's Third Breach: Why Some Companies Never Learn
DoorDash suffers its third data breach in six years. When does negligence become liability?
Collins Aerospace Attack: Ransomware Grounds Major Airports
A ransomware strike on Collins Aerospace’s MUSE system disrupted Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin—exposing aviation’s legacy software risks and urgent need for stronger defenses.
Jaguar Land Rover Ransomware: UK's Most Economically Damaging Cyberattack
A ransomware attack crippled Jaguar Land Rover, halting production for months and triggering a UK bailout—showing how phishing and weak response plans can devastate business.
Model Context Protocol: When AI Agents Control Your OS
Model Context Protocol (MCP) brings AI agents into Windows to orchestrate apps and workflows. Huge productivity gains—but new risks for security, autonomy, and trust.
Drift Supply Chain Attack: When Security Vendors Get Hacked
The Drift supply chain breach spread malicious updates to major security vendors and Google, exposing how third-party tools can become attack vectors—and why supply chain security must change.
GPT-5 Is Here: 400K Tokens and Unified Multimodal Processing
OpenAI’s GPT-5 brings a 400K-token context window and unified multimodal reasoning across text, images, audio, and video—unlocking enterprise-scale analysis and automation.
AI at the Olympics: How Paris 2024 Used Machine Learning for Security
Paris 2024 showcased AI-powered security—from smart surveillance to predictive analytics and cyber defense—setting a new benchmark for protecting global events.
AI Agents Can Now Work 7 Hours Straight: What This Means for Business
Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 can run complex tasks for up to seven hours nonstop—reshaping enterprise automation, workflows, and human‑AI collaboration.
The 8 Minute Hack
A pen test turns into an 8‑minute breach: a guest Wi‑Fi printer exploit reveals cached admin credentials and exposes how fast attackers can pivot inside.
ChatGPT Agent Launch: The Unified AI Workflow System
OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent unifies Operator, Deep Research, and ChatGPT to automate tasks, accelerate research, and streamline decision-making for modern teams.
700Credit Breach: 5.8 Million at Risk in Automotive Supply Chain Attack
A third-party API exploit at 700Credit exposed data tied to 5.8M auto loan applicants. Learn what happened, why supply chain attacks surge, and how to reduce risk.
The EU AI Act Enforcement Begins: Are You Ready?
EU AI Act enforcement is here, with fines up to €35M or 6% of turnover. Learn risk tiers, key obligations, and the compliance pitfalls businesses must avoid now.
SK Telecom and Coupang: 56 Million Records in Korean Data Crisis
SK Telecom and Coupang suffered a massive breach exposing 56 million records. AI-driven phishing, zero-days, and supply-chain compromise reveal urgent security gaps.
o3-pro: OpenAI's Most Capable Model Yet
OpenAI’s o3-pro raises the bar with stronger reasoning, multimodal analysis, and higher factual accuracy—helping businesses reduce risk and automate high-stakes work.
A New Chapter: Reflections on Agio's Journey and What Lies Ahead
Explore Agio's journey in managed IT and cybersecurity, its cultural pillars, and the transition to Netrio, a partner committed to building on its legacy.
Coinbase Extortion Attempt: Inside the Contractor Attack
Coinbase faced an extortion attempt by overseas contractors abusing insider access. Learn how it happened, why crypto is vulnerable, and how to reduce insider risk.
Operator Gets Smarter: OpenAI's Agent Upgrade to o3
OpenAI’s Operator upgrade to the o3 model boosts agentic AI with persistence, sharper context, and adaptability—reshaping customer service, ops, and executive decisions.
Blue Shield of California: 4.7 Million Exposed via Google Analytics
Blue Shield of California says a misconfigured Google Analytics setup exposed sensitive patient data for 4.7 million people—highlighting third-party analytics risks.
M&S Ransomware Attack: When IT Outsourcing Backfires
The M&S ransomware attack shows how IT outsourcing can magnify cyber risk. Learn what failed, why vendor oversight matters, and how leaders can prevent repeats.
OpenAI o3 and o4-mini: Native Tool Use During Reasoning
OpenAI’s o3 and o4-mini bring native tool use—web browsing, code execution, and file operations—directly into reasoning, reshaping how leaders deploy AI for decisions.
Why Every Enterprise Needs an AI Agent Strategy Now
AI agents are shifting from experiments to enterprise essentials in 2025. Learn why an AI agent strategy is now critical for speed, cost savings, and competitive advantage.
NYU Data Breach: 3 Million Student Records Exposed
NYU confirmed a breach exposing 3M applicant records over 35 years. Learn how legacy systems, patch gaps, and weak monitoring enabled the attack—and how schools can respond.
Task Duration Doubling Every 7 Months: METR's AI Capability Research
METR research finds AI can handle complex tasks at a pace that doubles every seven months—reshaping productivity, workforce strategy, and how leaders plan for AI-driven change.
Claude Projects: Anthropic's Answer to Enterprise AI Memory
Anthropic’s Claude Projects brings 200K-token context and persistent project memory—turning Claude into a long-term enterprise collaborator for complex workflows.
The GenAI Phishing Epidemic: When AI Makes Scams Undetectable
Generative AI is supercharging phishing with flawless emails, voice cloning, and deepfakes—making scams harder to spot and forcing businesses to rethink cyber defenses fast.
AI Agents in 2025: Beyond the Hype to Real Enterprise Value
AI agents are moving beyond hype in 2025—driving real enterprise gains in support, decision-making, and automation. Learn practical use cases and how to scale value.
The Death of the Open Office
For decades, the open office reigned supreme as the hallmark of modern workplace design. Heralded as a solution to foster collaboration, flatten hierarchies, and boost innovation, it became a staple i...
Bybit Heist: North Korea Steals $1.4 Billion in Largest Crypto Theft Ever
North Korea’s Lazarus Group stole $1.4B from Bybit in the biggest crypto heist ever—using spear-phishing, zero-days, and laundering tactics that expose major security gaps.
o3-mini Goes Free: OpenAI's Reasoning Model for Everyone
OpenAI’s o3-mini is now free for all ChatGPT users, bringing advanced reasoning to everyone. Learn what’s new, why it matters, and how to use it for work.
OpenAI Operator: The First True AI Agent Is Here
OpenAI’s Operator ushers in agentic AI—an autonomous agent that browses the web, completes forms, and executes complex tasks, reshaping productivity and business workflows.
US Treasury Breach: Chinese Hackers Access 3,000 Classified Files
Chinese hackers exploited a third-party vendor to access 3,000+ sensitive US Treasury files—highlighting rising supply chain risks, phishing, and zero-day threats.
2024 Cybersecurity Year in Review: The Worst Breaches and What We Learned
From Change Healthcare’s massive ransomware hit to Snowflake’s cloud misconfigurations, revisit 2024’s biggest breaches and the security lessons every org needs.
Google Gemini 2.0: Agentic AI Goes Mainstream
Google Gemini 2.0 pushes AI from reactive assistants to autonomous agents that plan, decide, and execute workflows—reshaping productivity and business strategy.
OpenAI's 12 Days of OpenAI: Everything You Need to Know
OpenAI’s “12 Days” reveals o1, major ChatGPT Pro upgrades, and an o3 multimodal preview—what it means for businesses, privacy, and the AI race.