Black October: Cybersecurity in the Age of AI | Practical Steps for Home & Business

What can individuals and business owners do today to protect their accounts, systems, and information? Ron Watson of Briggs Solutions for Business joins Josh Zukerman, founder and president of Snow Pond Technology Group, for a practical conversation about cybersecurity in the age of AI. We discuss the recent PHP vulnerabilities, the growth in reported software flaws, how AI can help attackers and defenders, and steps people and businesses can take now. Topics include stronger sign-ins, password managers, credit freezes, account recovery, backups, what to ask your IT provider, incident-response planning, and sensible rules for AI access to business information. Recorded October 28, 2026. “Black October” is an informal label for this discussion, not the name of a single attack campaign. COMPANION RESOURCES Download the companion trifold: https://assets.cdn.filesafe.space/665wDALM... 10 actions for individuals and 10 for businesses, warning signs, recovery steps, and further reading. ABOUT THE DATA The CVE Workbook snapshot of October 23, 2026 recorded 4,509 published software vulnerability records for October 16–22, about 4.9 times the 2025 weekly average of 922 across 51 complete Friday–Thursday weeks. These are reports of software flaws; they do not count successful attacks or establish how much of the increase was caused by AI. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introductions 02:21 What has changed in cybersecurity 06:23 Understanding PHP and vulnerability severity 12:29 Understanding the vulnerability data 17:32 How AI can help defenders 19:08 Warning signs and how to verify them 23:23 Practical steps for individuals 29:05 Stronger sign-ins, passkeys, and security keys 33:53 What business owners should ask their IT provider 39:43 Testing and incident-response plans 41:23 Looking ahead 44:23 Rules for using AI at work 50:34 Contact Ron and Josh CONNECT WITH US Ron Watson | Briggs Solutions for Business https://briggssolutionsforbusiness.com/ ron@briggssolutionsforbusiness.com | 207-401-7447 Josh Zukerman | Snow Pond Technology Group Inc. https://snowpondtech.com/ josh@snowpondtech.com | 207-692-2415 RESOURCES FROM THE TRIFOLD CISA: stronger sign-in and multi-factor authentication https://www.cisa.gov/MFA NIST: Small Business Cybersecurity Corner https://www.nist.gov/itl/smallbusinesscyber FBI: cybersecurity resources https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber FTC: credit freezes and fraud alerts https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/credit-f... FTC: AI voice-cloning scams https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2... NIST: Generative AI Risk Management Profile https://www.nist.gov/publications/artifici... Report online fraud: https://www.ic3.gov/ Identity-theft recovery: https://www.identitytheft.gov/ #Cybersecurity #SmallBusiness #AI