Women in cybersecurity still struggle against bias, says KnowBe4 SVP Anna Collard, who talks about her own unique cyber journey while China’s GLM-5.2 allegedly edges out Claude when it comes to vulnerability management. And Digital Europe gets one step closer to reality with the latest nod from the European Parliament.
Look around any cybersecurity conference and, yes, there are plenty of female faces—that might seem to imply that women are finally having their day in the industry. But, not so fast, cybersecurity continues to face a persistent challenge of attracting, retaining, and advancing women in the profession. Despite the progress, many of the barriers women encounter today remain remarkably similar to those faced decades ago. Anna Collard, Senior Vice President, Content Strategy, and CISO Advisor, reflects on her unconventional journey into cybersecurity, the realities of balancing leadership and family, the impact of AI on the workforce, and the actions both organizations and individuals can take to create more opportunities for women in the field. During Collard’s own journey, she found opportunity and support in unexpected places, summoned her own wherewithal to leave her comfort zone, and carved out a unique path. The very best of role models, Collard advocates for women pursuing cybersecurity careers and her insights reveal both the systemic challenges that remain and the opportunities emerging through technology, flexibility, and changing workplace expectations.
The $7 Billion Signal That IoT Is Becoming Physical AI
On paper, onsemi’s agreement to acquire Synaptics is a portfolio expansion but strategically, it is something more interesting: an attempt to build the architecture for machines that can sense, interpret, connect, and act without waiting for the cloud to do all the thinking. The first iteration of IoT was mostly about visibility. Put sensors on assets, connect devices, collect data, then send it somewhere else for analysis. That model helped companies see more of their operations, but it left a gap between information and action. In a factory, vehicle, robot, grid asset, medical device, or warehouse system, the most valuable intelligence is often the ability to act locally. It has to read the environment, process signals, make a decision, stay connected, and do all of it within the limits of power, heat, latency, cost, and reliability. This is the context for onsemi’s agreement to acquire Synaptics in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $7 billion. The deal brings together onsemi’s strength in power management and sensing with Synaptics’ Edge AI compute, wireless connectivity, interface technologies, and software assets.
Meta’s Employee Backlash Shows the Office Is Becoming AI’s New Data Mine
The unsettling part of Meta’s employee tracker is the intimacy of what it tried to turn into data. Meta paused its Model Capability Initiative after more than 1,600 employees signed a petition against it, The Guardian recently reported. The tool had reportedly tracked keystrokes, mouse clicks, and screen content from corporate laptops to collect data for AI training. For years, companies have treated workplace monitoring as a security or productivity issue to protect the network, prevent leaks, track compliance and measure output. Employees may dislike parts of that bargain, but the logic is familiar. AI changes the bargain because the company is no longer only looking at what someone produces. It is looking at how they get there. The real machinery of knowledge work is far more personal than the finished output. Inside a company like Meta, thousands of highly skilled people are solving hard problems all day, in context, using tools, judgement, memory, and expertise.
In a recent Semgrep evaluation, a Chinese open-weight model reportedly found software vulnerabilities at roughly $0.17 per finding while comparable Claude-based workflows came in closer to $1 or above. Now Zhipu AI, also known as Z.ai, has released GLM-5.2 under a permissive open-weight license, making the model available for researchers and developers to download, adapt, and run on standard consumer-grade hardware. It used to take time, expertise, and a little luck to find software flaws. Now, though, it is becoming something that can be searched for cheaply, repeatedly, and at industrial scale. And the cost gap is harder to dismiss, because cybersecurity rewards volume. A cheaper search runs more often across more code, endpoints, and permission paths. More weak logic surfaces before release, during bug bounty work, or in the hands of someone with very different intentions. Even more, GLM-5.2 reportedly achieved a 39% F1 score on IDOR detection, compared with roughly 32–37% for Claude-based workflows.
Digital Euro Clears Key European Parliament Vote
In a further step toward payment sovereignty, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced in late June that it had secured parliamentary backing for the launch of a digital euro in a campaign spearheaded by the Eurosystem mission. The Eurosystem’s intention is to limit reliance on payment networks and technology platforms headquartered outside Europe. This puts their strategy in line with the bloc’s broader digital sovereignty strategy. It is hoped that the ongoing legislative talks will result in a pilot being launched in 2027, followed by issuance as early as 2029. The digital euro would be electronic central bank money for retail payments. That would give it a clear distinction from commercial bank deposits, stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. Consumers might not initially notice the difference, since most already experience bank deposits as digital money anyway. Nonetheless, by facilitating offline and conditional payment functions, a digital euro could offer a similar degree of privacy to that of cash payments.