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December 19, 2025 | Bellingham, Wash.

If you thought AI was a fad, a flash in the pan, or a bubble, you may yet be right, but it’s been dominating our client conversations for the past few months with no signs of slowing in 2026.

In fact, it’s pretty clear that discussions (not to mention adoption) will only accelerate as we turn our collective calendars. To that end, please find a quick summary of what you need to know for AI governance, accelerated attack patterns from threat actors leveraging AI, and a few thoughts on how you can make these machines work for you and your company.

We’re wishing each of you the best during this holiday season, and hope that if you have any questions about AI, cybersecurity, or Christmas cookies, you’ll reach out: info@intentionalcyber.com.

Stay Intentional,

Shay, Keith, and the
Intentional Cybersecurity Team

Resource Corner

AI Governance in 2026: Key Frameworks You Need to Know

AI is already embedded in your environment. It’s sneaking in through the tools your team chose and the ones your vendors silently updated. The question isn't whether to govern AI, but how to do it in a way that captures upside and reduces risk. Two new frameworks were recently released, aimed at helping manage just this.

NIST released a preliminary draft of their Cyber AI Profile in December, mapping AI-specific considerations to the Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 (one of our favorites). It addresses three focus areas: securing AI systems you deploy, using AI to enhance your defenses, and protecting against AI-enabled attacks.

Meanwhile, the folks at OWASP published their Agentic Top 10, a security-focused look at the risks that emerge when AI systems move beyond chat interfaces into autonomous action (think making API calls, sending communications, or coordinating with other AI agents). If your organization is experimenting with AI automation, this should be required reading.

While these frameworks are robust, they're not exactly “quick-start” ready. If you're looking for something you can put into practice this quarter, we've developed a 5-question triage tool that helps employees and managers evaluate AI use cases in minutes, balancing data sensitivity against business impact to land on a clear path forward. It's designed to enable adoption with appropriate oversight, and it aligns with where the NIST and OWASP guidance is heading. Reach out if you'd like a copy or want to talk through how it fits your environment.

Intentional Brief Feature: AI Everywhere

Every week, we produce The Intentional Brief, a 5-minute video to help executives, managers, and investors understand the latest cybersecurity news and how to manage emerging risks within their organization.

You can find them on our website or YouTube channel every Monday.

While topics change with the news cycle, we've been highlighting how the basics of a security program can support both risk management and compliance efforts. Below are three of our latest on how we’re seeing AI come to life for attackers, defenders, and end users.

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