From guidance to action: Security fundamentals that materially reduce risk

AI has already made fundamental changes to the operating environment for cybersecurity. Cyberattackers are testing more paths, adapting their techniques, and moving across digital environments with greater speed and persistence. The weaknesses they exploit remain familiar: excessive permissions, unprotected authentication flows, unpatched systems, exposed execution paths, and gaps between controls.

What has changed is how quickly these weaknesses can combine into attack paths that cross identities, endpoints, applications, networks, and AI systems. A single foothold can become a broader compromise, making it increasingly difficult for security teams to determine which risks matter most and where to act first as their organizations adopt AI.