When countries design their cyber defense strategies, they do so on the premise that they can defend against malicious cyber operations only after the impacts of such acts materialize. Instead of taking this reactive posture, however, the United States spearheaded a paradigm shift to a proactive posture in 2018, when the Department of Defense (DOD) developed the “Defend Forward” strategy. This posture has since been maintained in the United States, and was reaffirmed in the introduction of the 2023 Department of Defense Cyber Strategy.

On July 10, 2025, Cybersecurity News published an in-depth overview examining how residential proxies—real-user IP addresses sourced from homes—are becoming essential components for ethical web intelligence and cybersecurity research.

Microsoft Research released a new episode in its AI Testing and Evaluation podcast series on July 14, 2025, featuring cybersecurity expert Professor Ciaran Martin (founder of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre) and Tori Westerhoff from Microsoft’s AI Red Team.

A recent ISC² study reveals that 30% of cybersecurity professionals have already adopted AI tools into their workflows, marking a significant shift in how security teams approach threat detection and response.

The NSA, CISA, FBI, and DoD’s DC3 released a joint Cybersecurity Information Sheet titled "Iranian Cyber Actors May Target Vulnerable U.S. Networks and Entities of Interest." The agencies caution that, despite an ongoing ceasefire, Iranian-affiliated threat actors—including state-sponsored groups and hacktivists—could soon launch disruptive campaigns against U.S. networks, particularly those with out-of-date systems or weak credentials.

Key Risks Highlighted: