When a Patch Can't Wait
Professional Security, Tuesday, October 6th, 2026
As AI finds vulnerabilities faster, organizations need a plan for urgent out-of-cycle patching, says Toro Solutions' Katie Barnett.
Katie Barnett, director of cyber security at Toro Solutions, notes that scheduled patching suits most vulnerabilities but asks what happens when one can't wait, especially as AI speeds discovery.
Anthropic's work with Mozilla found 22 Firefox vulnerabilities in two weeks using Claude Opus 4.6, 14 of them high severity, yet organizations still must determine whether they use affected software, where it is exposed and whether it is exploitable.
Weighing urgency against operational risk is complicated by laptops, servers, browsers, firewalls, firmware and systems managed by MSPs or not managed at all.