By Sherrod DeGrippo
Publication Date: 2026-02-05 17:00:00
Every conversation I have with information security leaders tends to land in the same place. People understand what matters. They know the frameworks, the controls, and the guidance. They can explain why identity security, patching, and access control are critical. And yet incidents keep happening for the same reasons.
Successful cyberattacks rarely depend on something novel. They succeed when basic controls are missing or inconsistently applied. Stolen credentials still work. Legacy authentication is still enabled. End-of-life systems remain connected and operational, though of course not well patched.
This is not a knowledge problem. It is an execution and follow through problem. We know what we’re supposed to do, but we need to get on with doing it. The gap between knowing what matters and enforcing it completely is where most real-world incidents occur.
If the basics were that easy to implement, everyone would have them in place already.
That gap is where…