Autonomous IT

Labor Day is over and Microsoft made up for the day off. Landon Miles and Serena DiPenti sort September's Patch Tuesday down to the six bugs that matter, starting with the only one Microsoft confirms is already exploited: a Windows Update Stack privilege escalation that hands attackers SYSTEM, published with no score and no affected-product list.

They also cover:

- An unauthenticated remote code execution in Windows DNS Server, rated more likely to be exploited, and why it's a domain controller problem for most shops

- A...

In April, Jason Kikta and Dmitri Alperovitch landed on a structural conclusion: AI had collapsed patch-to-exploit time to under an hour, 1-10-60 was no longer fast enough, and the only answer was prevention. Patch by default, limit blast radius, stop playing a detection-and-response game built for human-speed attacks. 

This episode picks up where that conversation ended. What's changed since April, and can detection-first models survive the pace of change at all? Kat Traxler is here to stress test that question from the inside.

Guests: Jason Kikta, Automox CTO, Dmitri Alperovitch, Co-Founder and Chairman, Silverado P...

August 2026 delivers the second-largest Patch Tuesday on record with nearly 400 CVEs, and Landon Miles, Jason Kikta, and Serena DiPenti sort out which ones actually matter. They start with the only actively exploited vulnerability of the month, CVE-2026-68820, a use-after-free in the Windows AFD driver that trades a race condition for SYSTEM privileges. Serena breaks down CVE-2026-62832, a User Profile Service privilege escalation that lets an attacker load another user's registry hive with no user interaction required.

Then there's the perfect 10.0 in Microsoft Teams that nobody needs to patch. Jason explains how cloud CVEs ended up...

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) underpins nearly every secure interaction in modern IT, but it's also one of the most misunderstood and overlooked foundations of security.

In this episode of Secure IT, host Jason Kikta is joined by Mark Cooper, CEO and founder of PKI Solutions, to unpack why PKI is so critical to identity, authentication, and trust, and what happens when it fails.

They explore how certificates enable passwordless authentication, secure TLS connections, IoT devices, endpoints, and enterprise systems, while also examining why misconfigured or poorly monitored PKI environments often become an attacker's fastest path...

570 vulnerabilities. That's July's Patch Tuesday count, nearly triple last month and a record by a wide margin.

 Jason Kikta is joined by host Landon Miles and offensive-security researcher Serena DiPenti for the July 2026 rundown:

Eighteen months after the Hands-On IT podcast tackled the state of IT careers, Chelsea Rickey, SVP of Human Resources at Automox, comes back to the conversation to assess what held up, what changed, and what nobody quite predicted.

AI is no longer a future-state problem. It's already reshaping what roles look like, how productivity gets measured, and how organizations coordinate. Individual learning agility still matters, but Chelsea argues the harder question now is whether organizations can adapt as fast as the people inside them.

CISA's BOD 26-04 replaces severity-based patching with an exploit-evidence model and remediation clocks as short as three days, fleet-wide, no exceptions. Peter Pflaster and Jason Kikta unpack the four urgency signals, the 16-row decision tree, and the shift from "justify the patch" to "justify why you can't." They also cover what it means for contractors, cyber insurance, and the future of Patch Tuesday. 

If you own patching or vulnerability management, start here.

June 2026 has no headliner. Instead of one critical bug, the release spreads thin across the kernel, the network stack, a code editor, an AI assistant, a bootloader, and a nine-year-old Linux root bug. It's a breadth problem, not a severity one, and it changes how you triage.

Jason Kikta and Landon Miles break down the whole release, then step off the patch list for the breaches that never got a CVE: GitHub's internal repos reached through a poisoned VS Code extension, a TanStack compromise carrying valid SLSA provenance, and a Red Hat npm namespace compromise that fired...

The May 2026 Microsoft Patch Tuesday release looks quiet on the surface – no actively exploited zero-days, no public disclosures at release, and a CVE count below the four-month average. Don't let that fool you.

In this episode, Jason Kikta and Landon Miles break down everything that happened between April and May patch cycles, including Apple's macOS Tahoe 26.5 release with 79 CVEs, the Dirty Frag Linux kernel privilege escalation chain, and two pre-authenticated network remote code execution vulnerabilities in Windows core services that belong at the top of your patch list.

They also dig into one of the mo...

Breaking from the normal Patch Tuesday cadence for an emergency drop. On May 7, security researcher Hyunwoo Kim published a working proof-of-concept for DirtyFrag - a Linux kernel local privilege escalation chain that gets unprivileged users to root on every major distribution. The embargo was broken by a third party before distribution backports were ready, so the exploit is public and the patch is not.

CTO Jason Kikta and Landon Miles walk through what makes DirtyFrag different from the Copy Fail mitigation many teams already deployed (spoiler: the CopyFail mitigation does NOT cover this), why AWS is calling...

In this episode of Autonomous IT, Live!, we break down the widening gap between exploitation speed and remediation reality. Disclosed vulnerabilities keep climbing, exploitation windows keep shrinking, and IT and security teams are expected to absorb more risk without more resources. The traditional playbook — manual patching, fragmented workflows, scheduled cycles — was built for a slower world that no longer exists.

What you'll learn:

Claude Mythos dominated the AI security conversation for two weeks straight, from the Cloud Security Alliance's strategy briefing to sharp public skepticism to yesterday's Bloomberg report that unauthorized users on Discord have been accessing Mythos since its limited launch. Host Jason Kikta cuts through the noise to separate the contested vendor claims from the established trend.

In this episode:

This month's Patch Tuesday drops a SQL Server elevation of privilege that hands attackers sysadmin access and an actively exploited SharePoint XSS flaw that requires no authentication. 

SQL injection in the database engine. Cross-site scripting. In 2026...? 

Ryan and Mat break down how these attacks work, what to watch for, and why these "classic" vulnerability classes refuse to stay dead.                

Also covered: 80 Edge and Chromium fixes released this month, and a recurring reminder about Secure Boot certificates you can't afford to ignore this year.

In this episode of IT Insiders, Maddie Regis speaks with Emily Pace, a Senior Product Manager at Automox. Emily shares her career journey, her role in product management, and the collaborative environment at Automox that fosters innovation. They discuss current projects, the importance of customer feedback, and Emily's advice for IT professionals. The conversation concludes with a fun game about real and fake products, showcasing Emily's quick thinking and humor.

This episode originally aired November 19, 2024

What if your IT team could troubleshoot and remediate endpoint issues without ever leaving their service desk? In this episode, Steph Rizzuto and Katherine Chipdey break down the new Automox + Zendesk integration. 

They cover what it does, why it matters, and how it's designed to cut meantime to remediation for IT teams. The integration surfaces real-time endpoint data directly inside Zendesk tickets. It also gives admins one-click actions like device restarts, patch deployment, and policy execution. Beyond reactive fixes, it flags automation gaps so fewer tickets get created in the first place. Plus, hear how the Splashtop r...

In this episode of Automox Insiders, host Maddie Regis chats with Adam Whitman, Manager of Solutions Engineering at Automox, about all things IT spring cleaning. From patch management and software audits to business continuity planning and endpoint hygiene, Adam shares practical, real-world tips for tidying up your tech stack and staying ahead of IT clutter. 

Along the way, he reflects on his career journey from marketing to IT leadership and reveals some personal spring cleaning confessions. Tune in for expert advice and a fresh perspective to help you refresh your IT environment this season.

This p...

A routine support ticket reveals a deeper truth about patch management. Your patching tool says "done," but your vulnerability scanner disagrees – so who's right? In this episode, Automox SVP of Customer Experience Charles Coaxum walks through a real customer case. Dozens of machines showed as patched in the dashboard but were flagged as vulnerable by the scanner. The culprit wasn't a bug or misconfiguration. It was the often-overlooked gap between patch execution and patch completion. Learn why pending reboots create silent compliance gaps. Discover how to identify endpoints stuck in limbo. And see how automation turns hours of manual in...

March 2026's Patch Tuesday brings no active exploitations, but don't let that fool you. This month, Ryan Braunstein and Henry Smith break down why medium-severity vulnerabilities deserve your full attention.

First up: a Push Message Routing Service memory leak (CVE-2026-24282, CVSS 5.5) that lets attackers scrape session tokens and private keys from heap memory. Then, a pair of GDI bugs (CVE-2026-25181 and CVE-2026-25190) that chain together to defeat ASLR and deliver remote code execution with near-perfect reliability. Henry covers a Windows Accessibility Infrastructure flaw (CVE-2026-24291) hiding in a service most teams...

In this episode, Jeremy Maldonado shares his experiences and insights on server management, highlighting the importance of learning from mistakes, the power of automation, and finding balance between Linux and Windows environments. He discusses the challenges and rewards of managing servers, the pivotal role of Ansible in streamlining operations, and the confidence required to maintain a reliable infrastructure. Jeremy encourages listeners to view setbacks as opportunities for growth while reminding us to be kind to ourselves throughout our professional journeys.

This episode originally aired March 6, 2025

The all-knowing IT pro is a myth. In this episode, Automox Senior Solutions Consultant Jeremy Maldonado breaks down why curiosity and asking for help are the real foundations of a successful IT career. He shares how he went from feeling nervous about asking questions to becoming a trusted resource for IT teams across industries, including hospitals, local governments, and school districts.

Jeremy also pulls back the curtain on what he does day to day on the Automox Professional Services team: reviewing IT admins' environments, evaluating patching schedules, and working collaboratively to fine-tune configurations. Rather...

NIST is falling behind on vulnerability scoring — and the gap is growing. In this episode, Peter and Steph break down what that means for IT and security teams relying on CVE data to prioritize patching, and how Automox is solving it.

We cover:

In this episode of Automox's Secure IT podcast, host Jason Kikta welcomes back Rich Casselberry, VP of IT security at AT&I, to discuss key insights from the CISO Blueprint. The conversation emphasizes the importance of a positive approach to security, the role of automation in IT practices, and the necessity of delegation to enhance efficiency. Rich shares real-world examples illustrating how a solution-oriented mindset can lead to better security outcomes and how automation can free up valuable time for IT professionals.

This episode originally aired January 16, 2025

February's Patch Tuesday includes two actively exploited vulnerabilities you need to patch now. Ryan Braunstein breaks down a denial of service flaw in Windows Remote Access Connection Manager that can black out your VPN infrastructure and leave remote endpoints unreachable. Seth Hoyt covers a pair of SmartScreen bypasses that let malicious files slip past Windows security prompts without warning.

Both vulnerabilities rely on user interaction to succeed, and phishing is getting harder to spot. Ryan and Seth discuss how AI is lowering the barrier to entry for attackers, making convincing phishing emails easier to...

In this episode of Automate IT, Jeremy Maldonado dives into the world of data-driven endpoint management, breaking down what it means to go “beyond the spreadsheets.” He explores how visibility, intelligent reporting, asset intelligence, and risk scoring can transform how IT teams manage and secure their environments.

Drawing from his own journey into the IT space, Jeremy unpacks practical strategies for improving compliance, prioritizing threats, and empowering IT teams to play offense, not just defense. Whether you're an IT pro or just endpoint-curious, this episode will give you fresh perspective on managing smarter, not harder.

This...

In this episode of Automox Insiders, Maddie Regis welcomes back Charles Coaxum, SVP of Customer Experience at Automox, to talk about what really happens after the deal is signed. Charles shares a quick look at his career journey from frontline support to customer experience leadership, and explains why the moments that shape great leaders often come from the toughest customer conversations.

You will also get a first look at Charles’s upcoming podcast on the Automox network, where he plans to bring honest, practical stories from the post sale world without the extra polish. Then Maddie puts Ch...

What if the IT industry stopped pretending everything is “fine”?

In this Autonomous IT live show, Automox CEO Justin Talerico shares candid perspectives on the real state of IT as the industry heads into 2026 — where things are breaking down, why burnout is becoming an operational risk, and what actually needs to change.

Topics include:
-- Why many IT careers begin with curiosity and stall under constant operational pressure
-- The operational risk created by manual work and hero-based infrastructure
-- Why automation initiatives fail and why the root cause is rarely the toolin...

In this episode of Hands-On IT, host Landon Miles is joined by Automox Security Engineer Henry Smith for a deep dive into prompt engineering and how it’s transforming the way IT and security teams work with AI.

From crafting high-quality prompts to auditing and hardening code using large language models like Claude and ChatGPT, Landon and Henry share real-world insights, practical strategies, and lessons learned from implementing AI in secure development workflows.

They also explore:

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) underpins nearly every secure interaction in modern IT, but it's also one of the most misunderstood and overlooked foundations of security.

In this episode of Secure IT, host Jason Kikta is joined by Mark Cooper, CEO and founder of PKI Solutions, to unpack why PKI is so critical to identity, authentication, and trust, and what happens when it fails.

They explore how certificates enable passwordless authentication, secure TLS connections, IoT devices, endpoints, and enterprise systems, while also examining why misconfigured or poorly monitored PKI environments often become an attacker's fastest path...

Automox announces its new partnership with Splashtop, bringing secure remote control directly into the Automox console. Host Peter Pflaster is joined by Italo Nava from Splashtop and Automox Product Manager Steph Rizzuto on launch day to break down the integration and what it means for IT teams.

They discuss why remote access is still essential even when automation handles most of the work, the cost of switching between tools during urgent issues, and how Splashtop’s 20 years of experience drives reliability and security. Steph also shares early access results, including average connection times under 10 seconds and a 95% su...

Happy New Year! In this episode, Automox cybersecurity experts Ryan Braunstein and Seth Hoyt break down the security vulnerabilities you need to know heading into 2026.

First up: a ticking time bomb. Microsoft's 2011 Secure Boot certificates expire in June and October 2026, making this your top patching priority for the year. If your BIOS and OS aren't both updated, you're leaving the door wide open for rootkit attacks. Start auditing your hardware now. You have six months.

Next up: a Windows Installer Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability that exploits a time-of-check to...

 What if the biggest time-saving wins don't come from major projects—but from eliminating the small, repetitive tasks eating up your week?

In this episode, Automox Solutions Consultant Jeremy Maldonado shares his New Year's resolution: reduce burnout by automating the manual work that drains IT teams. From device enrollment and patching policies to tracking down failures without babysitting your machines, Jeremy walks through practical ways to reclaim your time and mental energy.

You'll learn:
  - How to automate device setup the moment it comes online
  - Best practice policy templates you can use out o...

Happy New Year! For those of you on call or working through the holiday, we've got you covered.

This 2.5-hour megacut compiles every Autonomous IT live show in 2025 – your companion for long shifts, quiet NOCs, and keeping one eye on the dashboard.

Grab your coffee, and ring in the new year with conversations on patch management, endpoint security, automation strategies, and the real talk that only happens when IT pros get together live.

Thanks for spending part of your year with us.

Here's to 2026.

We'll be back with new ep...

Happy Holidays!
In this Best Moments of 2025 episode, we revisit standout discussions, sharp takes, and memorable moments from the year – covering ransomware, vulnerability management, automation, zero trust, and the evolving role of the CISO. Whether you’re leading security strategy or working hands-on in IT, these highlights capture the ideas that shaped the year in cybersecurity.

This Christmas, strap in for three hours of vulnerabilities, patches, and the occasional existential crisis about holiday skeleton crews. This megacut compiles every 2025 episode of Patch [FIX] Tuesday, featuring Automox security engineers Ryan Braunstein, Henry Smith, Seth Hoyt, Mat Lee, and Tom Bowyer breaking down the year’s most critical security updates.

What’s inside:

Whether you’re catching up on a year of patches or nee...

In this episode of Hands-On IT, Landon Miles explores the history of servers and enterprise IT infrastructure, from early mainframe computers to cloud computing, Linux servers, virtualization, containers, and AI-driven data centers.

This episode connects decades of server evolution into a clear, accessible story, focusing on the people, technologies, and ideas that shaped modern computing. From IBM’s System/360 and minicomputers, to Unix and Linux, virtualization, cloud platforms like AWS and Azure, and container orchestration with Docker and Kubernetes, this episode explains how servers became the foundation of today’s digital world.

Topics covered incl...

This episode of Automate IT brings together the most meaningful conversations from 2025 – stories and insights that defined the year.

From early career breakthroughs to lessons learned through repetition, these moments reveal the human side of IT work while delivering practical takeaways on automation, visibility, consistency, patching, and day-to-day problem solving.

You’ll hear how IT leaders built confidence, shaped better processes, and navigated increasingly complex environments. These clips capture the ideas that resonated most – and the perspectives shaping the future of modern endpoint management.

In this 2025 highlights compilation, you’ll learn:

Attackers don’t take holidays off. In this December Patch Tuesday episode, the Automox security team breaks down three high-impact vulnerabilities landing at the end of 2025. Ryan, Mat, and Seth unpack the React2Shell RCE hitting React Server Components, an Azure Monitor Agent flaw that turns the syslog user into a stealthy foothold, and a Windows File Explorer bug where a single click may trigger privilege escalation.

You’ll hear why light patch months aren’t always low-risk, how bundled dependencies can expose you even if you don’t “use” React, and why log pipelines remain a prime target...

Product Talk – Inside the Splashtop Partnership: Remote Control Gets a Boost (E22)

In this episode, Peter and Steph break down one of the most anticipated updates coming to Automox in early 2026 — the new partnership with Splashtop. You’ll hear why Automox is moving from Automox Assist to an integrated Splashtop experience, what this means for remote control on macOS and Windows, and how existing customers will transition to Resolve by Splashtop.

The conversation covers real-world insights from Microsoft Ignite, upcoming feature improvements, what’s included in Automate Enterprise, and how advanced Splashtop capabilities will be availabl...

CISO IT host Jason Kikta shares a heartfelt story from his time in the Marine Corps, highlighting the importance of teamwork and problem-solving in IT. He recounts a challenging situation involving bandwidth issues on the USS Iwo Jima, where he and his colleague Matthew Yates worked together to identify and resolve a significant communication problem. The story emphasizes gratitude for those who contribute to making IT professionals' lives easier and the impact of IT heroes in overcoming obstacles.

This episode originally aired November 14, 2024 

In this episode of CISO IT, host Jason Kikta, CTO of Automox, brings you insights straight from the floor of Microsoft Ignite. After meeting with customers, partners, and countless IT pros, one message came through loud and clear: reliability and consolidation matter now more than ever.

Jason breaks down why teams are exhausted by tool sprawl, frustrated by unreliable platforms, and ready to reclaim time by eliminating manual, repetitive work. From the renewed demand for a unified operational view to the rising expectation that software simply works, this conversation explores the real-world pressures facing IT...