Verizon's 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report reviewed 22,052 security incidents and 12,195 confirmed breaches. Ransomware showed up in 44% of them. That's up from 32% the prior year. If that trend line continues, we're on track for ransomware involvement in the majority of all breaches within two to three years. What changed? Third-party involvement in breaches nearly doubled, jumping from 15% to 30% of incidents. That's your vendors, your partners, your supply chain. You can harden your own environment and still get hit through someone else's front door. The human element is still in about 60% of breaches. Phishing, credential theft, social engineering. None of that is new. What's new is that AI is now amplifying every single one of those attack vectors. Personalized phishing at scale. Deepfakes for credential harvesting. Polymorphic malware that shifts signatures to dodge detection. Security is not an IT problem. It is a board-level business risk. If your executive team is still treating it like the former, the Verizon numbers are telling you exactly where that mindset leads. The average cost to resolve a data breach in the US is now $10.22 million. The question every CEO should be asking isn't what's our security budget. It's what's our actual exposure.

During the DARPA AI Cyber Challenge, autonomous AI systems uncovered 18 zero-day vulnerabilities and patched 61% of them in 45 minutes. Without any human input. Zero-days are the most dangerous class of software vulnerability. Attackers prize them because they're unknown to defenders. A human security team might take weeks or months to find one, if they find it at all. An AI did it 18 times in under an hour. And then patched most of them. This is a preview of where both offensive and defensive cybersecurity are heading. The same capability that can find vulnerabilities and patch them can find vulnerabilities and exploit them. The question is who gets there first, and whose AI is faster. The DARPA AI Cyber Challenge was a proof of concept. The nation-state actors who've been watching that competition already have teams working on the offensive version. Security teams that don't have AI in their stack aren't just behind. They're playing a fundamentally different game than the one being played against them.

I've seen what happens when city systems and first responders rely on shared commercial networks during high-demand moments. @T_Priority provides public safety teams with prioritized network access designed to help them stay connected when it matters most. Smarter cities start with connectivity built for critical communication. Learn more: t-mobile.com/business/resour… T-Priority Partner

I am a five-time CEO/CIO/CISO at five different organizations. The one thing that never changes is this. Your people are your biggest asset and your biggest risk. You can spend millions on tools but if your team does not understand why security matters, none of it works. So, Invest in your people first!

When you have lived through a real-world crisis or two, you understand how much reliable communication matters. Here is an inside look at T-Mobile emergency response operations and how they leverage @T_Priority. It’s worth the read.

TL;DR: Ransomware will hit every 2 seconds globally in 2026. And attackers just made it worse. Here's what's changing and what you should know. 🧵

In cities and counties I work with, the difference between reacting and leading comes down to communication that holds up when demand spikes. Smart cities tech that can help citizens when it matters most starts with connectivity built for pressure, like what @T_Priority helps deliver for municipal teams. Learn more bit.ly/4a97ZFc #SmartCities #PublicSafety T-Priority Partner