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Today’s Show Notes: AI investment signals, patch urgency, FedRAMP milestones, and the hidden infrastructure risks you can’t ignore.
Monday AI Market Maker. Marissa Mayer’s Dazzle AI raises an $8M seed round.Dazzle AI announced an $8 million seed round, led by Forerunner with participation from multiple well-known firms. For enterprise tech leaders, early rounds like this matter less as hype and more as a market signal about where investor confidence is clustering.
Quick Reminder: While the Exchange Daily will remain free for the foreseeable future, today is the final free Exchange Weekly Newsletter.
If you’re building your 2026 roadmap, treat this as a reminder to keep a disciplined AI vendor intake process. Focus on data handling, integration friction, measurable ROI, and what the vendor can prove in a short pilot rather than what they promise on a slide.
Sources:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251223032587/en/Marissa-Mayers-New-Startup-Dazzle-AI-Raises-%248-Million-Seed-Round
NIST launches two AI centers for manufacturing and critical infrastructure.NIST announced new centers designed to accelerate delivery of AI-based technology solutions for manufacturing and critical infrastructure. This is a standards-and-adoption play that will influence how “trusted AI” expectations show up in procurement and governance.
For CIOs and CISOs, the opportunity is alignment. Put an owner on tracking NIST outputs, and translate them into policy, control requirements, and vendor expectations so you don’t get surprised when customers and regulators start using the same language.
Sources:https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2025/12/nist-launches-centers-ai-manufacturing-and-critical-infrastructure
Apple patches exploited WebKit zero-days in iOS/iPadOS 26.2.Apple’s security content for iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2 includes WebKit fixes where Apple notes exploitation in highly targeted attacks. This is the kind of issue that hits executives and high-risk users first, even when the broader fleet feels fine.
Make mobile patching a governance muscle. Confirm devices actually updated, enforce compliance through MDM, and keep a short playbook for VIP hardening so you can move quickly when the next advisory drops.
Sources:https://support.apple.com/en-mn/125884
Microsoft out-of-band updates address MSMQ regressions after December patches.Microsoft published out-of-band updates that include fixes for MSMQ issues introduced by earlier December updates. This is a practical example of why patch governance must balance speed, testing rigor, and business continuity.
If you run queue-dependent workflows, map your systems to the relevant KBs and validate critical paths under realistic conditions. Ring deployments and clear rollback criteria keep you from turning “security updates” into a reliability crisis.
Sources:https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/december-18-2025-kb5074976-os-builds-19044-6693-and-19045-6693-out-of-band-d4f0c02c-4c3d-44e7-bc4b-db0034dd3fachttps://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/december-18-2025-kb5074978-monthly-rollup-out-of-band-615b371a-de10-4350-9521-a5cb950052ba
FedRAMP 20x Phase 2 milestones, including Cohort 2 applications Jan 5–9, 2026.FedRAMP published Phase 2 milestones and reiterated the Cohort 2 application window in early January. For providers, the signal is clear: automation-friendly evidence and continuous validation patterns are becoming central to authorization conversations.
For federal buyers and integrators, use this to plan what “ready for federal” will mean operationally in 2026. Even if you’re not participating, the winners will influence future expectations for controls, attestations, and reporting.
Sources:https://www.fedramp.gov/2025-12-10-announcing-the-initial-20x-phase-2-pilot-participants/https://www.fedramp.gov/20x/phase-two/
NIST SSDF Version 1.2 draft is open for public comment.NIST opened public comment for the SSDF Version 1.2 draft, reinforcing secure-by-design practices that organizations can integrate into their SDLC. This matters because SSDF increasingly shows up as a buyer expectation and an audit reference point.
Security and engineering leaders should map current practices to SSDF, identify the biggest gaps, and pick one automation win for the first quarter. The goal is measurable, repeatable secure software, not policy theater.
Sources:https://csrc.nist.gov/News/2025/draft-ssdf-version-1-2https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/218/r1/ipd
NIST revises IR 8286 guidance for integrating cybersecurity risk with ERM.NIST released revised IR 8286 publications focused on integrating cybersecurity risk management into enterprise risk management. This is board-facing material that helps translate technical risk into fiduciary decision-making language.
If your risk reporting feels disconnected from business strategy, use IR 8286 to standardize appetite, tolerance, and risk register structure. When you do, budget conversations shift from abstract fear to explicit tradeoffs.
Sources:https://csrc.nist.gov/News/2025/nist-revises-ir-8286-suite-of-reportshttps://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/ir/8286/r1/final
NIST Internet Time Service notice after Boulder power outage.A NIST notice warned that Boulder ITS hosts could be serving time without an accurate reference after a prolonged power outage. Timing issues can ripple into authentication, logging, incident response, and distributed systems ordering.
Treat this as a reminder to avoid hard-coding a single NTP source. Inventory where your environment gets time, use multiple independent sources, and monitor drift so you catch issues before they become outages or investigations.
Sources:https://seclists.org/nanog/2025/Dec/199https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-distribution/internet-time-service-itshttps://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi
H.R. 6920 and BEAD subgrants for “meaningful use of AI-supportive telecommunications infrastructure.”H.R. 6920 includes language that ties BEAD subgrants to outcomes including meaningful use of AI-supportive telecommunications infrastructure. It’s a signal that broadband funding narratives are shifting toward capability outcomes, not just coverage maps.
State CIOs and broadband leaders should align on an AI-ready connectivity roadmap that connects broadband, public safety, workforce training, and digital services strategy. Even before legislation advances, the framing can influence state planning and stakeholder expectations.
Sources:https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr6920/BILLS-119hr6920ih.pdfhttps://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6920/text
Topics We’re Tracking (But Didn’t Make the Cut)
Dropped Topic: Secondary coverage and commentary on the Apple WebKit zero-days.
* Why It Didn’t Make the Cut: We relied on Apple’s primary advisory for the core facts.
* Why It Caught Our Eye: It shows how quickly “targeted” exploits become enterprise patch drivers.
Dropped Topic: Secondary reporting on the NIST Internet Time Service outage and drift magnitude.
* Why It Didn’t Make the Cut: We used the NIST staff notice as the primary verification point.
* Why It Caught Our Eye: Time drift is a hidden dependency that can break incident investigations.
Quick Disclaimer and Sources Note: The author used AI in part to create this newscast. Our goal is to be transparent and show you how we sourced the info we used.
This update was assembled using a mix of human editorial judgment, public records, and reputable national and sector-specific news sources, with help from artificial intelligence tools to summarize and organize information. All information is drawn from publicly available sources listed above. Every effort is made to keep details accurate as of publication time, but readers should always confirm time-sensitive items such as policy changes, budget figures, and timelines with official documents and briefings.
All original content, formatting, and presentation are copyright 2025 Metora Solutions LLC, all rights reserved. For more information about our work and other projects, drop us a note at [email protected].
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