Cybersecurity & Resilience

• Weekly threat roundup flags autonomous AI agents crossing security boundaries and coordinated attacks on water-sector OT
• Attackers now breach and pivot networks in under 30 minutes on average, faster than human-led response
• OpenAI's Chris Lehane warns of "ongoing, persistent" AI-driven cyberattacks as company pauses its most advanced models
• PAN-OS 12.2 adds Quantum Safe Security and Next-Generation Trust Security to automate certificate lifecycle management
• NTT DATA and Palo Alto Networks announce $1 billion alliance across six security transformation areas
• Commvault and Google embed Google Threat Intelligence directly into recovery workflows
• Hilscher achieves ISO/IEC 27001 certification after months of strengthening security processes

‍

Quantum Computing

• IBM links two cryogenic modules at Yorktown Heights, reaching 15 millikelvin en route to Starling in 2029
• Each Starling module will house at least 2,000 programmable qubits within roughly three cubic meters
• IBM and University of Chicago demonstrate quantum advantage, solving a problem in 15 minutes
• BCG finds enterprise quantum spending overtook government spending in 2025, with 62% committing $1M+ annually
• HSBC hires a Director of Quantum and Advanced Computing based in London or Singapore
• Canada launches Quantum Defence Innovation Secure Hub in Calgary with C$20.3 million over two years
• Quantum-GUARD Act would direct FERC and DOE to test post-quantum cryptography across grid IT and OT

‍

AI & Agentic Systems

• RAG hallucinations trace to shallow retrieval and missing reranking, not embedding model choice
• A bank SOC alert traced to a privileged identity turns out to belong to an AI agent, not an employee
• Agentic AI positioned as a way to make proactive security affordable beyond large enterprises
• Anthropic's LLM-based cryptanalysis research prompts HAWK's withdrawal from NIST's PQC standardization
• OpenAI names IBM an Elite Partner, launching a dedicated OpenAI Practice with thousands of consultants

‍

Data Infrastructure & Cloud

• AWS plans an 18-building, 3.96 million square foot data center campus near Trenton, Ohio
• Nigeria unveils a National Digital Cloud Policy backed by $750 million in expected investment
• Grid, water, and NIMBY constraints push space-based data centers from fringe idea to real estate signal
• Data center redundancy framework maps the path from N+1 through 2N to fully fault-tolerant architecture
• Virtualization rethink increasingly ties to AI workloads, cyber resilience, and sovereignty requirements
• Akamai's Developer Hub bundles free tutorials and a live Discord community, plus $300 in cloud credits

‍

Digital Transformation & Leadership

• CIOs warned that integration, data quality, and security review drive AI pilot costs, not the pilot itself
• ERP transformations lose the most value to early decisions, not software costs
• Ethiopia digital transformation proposal classifies which government systems public agencies versus private ICT firms should build
• Nigeria's Ministry of Communications discusses National Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill implementation
• Leadership podcast examines burnout, AI anxiety, and decision fatigue as an overlooked layer of resilience
• Twenty-stage roadmap guides embedded systems and IoT engineers from C programming to edge computing deployment

‍

Thanks to Aaron Stillwell, Philippe Salle, Bob Carver, Rich Campagna, Eromosele Omomhenle, Brian Lanigan, Thomas Rauch, Ken Kuang, Dr. Corey O'Meara, Jan Mikolon, Isabelle Bousquette, Philip Intallura, Srinivasa Rao Aluri, Nicholas Friedman, Mohammad Syed, Ratan Jyoti, Vasu Jakkal, Jaime Gómez García, Colleen Kapase, Archie Coffield, Confidence Staveley, Brendan Wallace, Guna Sundaran, Patrick Osborne, Vishakha Sadhwani, Jeff Winter, George Collier, Aschalew Debebe, Lucy Abagi, Dr. Pat Boulogne, and Devs Vignesh and everyone else who contributed insights to this edition. Find the full list of posts and voices on LinkedIn: