Autonomous IT

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 learni...

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...

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 C...

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 Fra...

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...

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 t...

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.       ...

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 r...

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 tick...

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 car...

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 misco...

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-...

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...

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...

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: Why NIST's National Vulnerability Database has a growing backlog and what's causing it How incomplete vulnerability data creates blind spots in your patch...

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...

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....

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 strateg...

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 wi...

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 c...

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...

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...

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 co...

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 o...