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Compliance Debt and GSA's Quiet NIST 800‐171 Play
IT channel and business news with a focus on regulatory compliance.
Blacksmith Team
February 25, 2026
💰 Compliance Debt Is the New Tech Debt
Compliance debt is the pile‑up of half-implemented controls, untested policies, and missing evidence that builds as new regulations land faster than teams can operationalize them. In 2026, SEC exam priorities, NIS2, and AI-governance rules are turning that debt into a real balance sheet risk for security leaders…
🤫 GSA Is Sneaking NIST 800‑171 Into Civilian Contracts
The quiet reality in 2026 is this: even without a civilian CMMC rule, GSA has already put small and mid-size contractors on a CMMC trajectory. If you operationalize NIST 800‑171 now — on your terms — you’ll be ready not just for today’s clauses, but for whatever formal program comes next…
⚠️ Threat Updates
🔴 AI‑Accelerated Exploitation of Public‑Facing Apps Fuels Ransomware and Supply‑Chain Breaches (02/25/26)
IBM’s 2026 X‑Force Threat Intelligence Index reports a 44% jump in attacks starting with exploitation of internet‑exposed applications, driven by missing authentication and AI‑assisted vulnerability discovery, alongside a 49% surge in active ransomware and extortion groups and a nearly 4x increase in large third‑party compromises since 2020. Security teams should aggressively reduce external attack surface by enforcing strong authentication on all public apps, prioritizing patching and hardening of internet‑facing services, and tightening third‑party and CI/CD controls, treating supply‑chain and SaaS integrations as high‑value assets rather than convenience links. » More Info
🔴 Backdoored Pulse Secure VPN Builds and BeyondTrust Flaw Enable Deep Remote Compromise (02/23/26)
Recent advisories highlight a backdoor discovered in certain Pulse Secure VPN versions and active exploitation of CVE‑2026‑1731 in BeyondTrust remote support software, where unauthenticated attackers inject commands during a WebSocket handshake to gain full OS‑level control, create admin accounts, deploy web shells and RATs, and establish durable command‑and‑control across multiple sectors. Security teams should urgently inventory and patch or replace affected VPN and remote support appliances, add network‑level monitoring and strict access control around remote‑admin tools, and assume potential lateral movement and credential theft from any exposed or previously unmonitored management interfaces. » More Info
🗨️ Parting Words
“Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.” – Alfred North Whitehead, Philosopher and Mathematician
Are you a vCISO or MSP looking to operationalize security programs? Let’s discuss how Blacksmith Infosec proves that compliance is an opportunity, not a struggle that has to be packaged in FUD!