Ben's Info Tech Blog

The Anthropomorphic Shift: A Comprehensive Analysis of Humanoid AI-Powered Systems in Non-Industrial Workplace Settings

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Anthropomorphic Shift: A Comprehensive Analysis of Humanoid AI-Powered Systems in Non-Industrial Workplace Settings Research Analysis · April 2026 Abstract The humanoid robot market has crossed a threshold. Between 2024 and 2026, a convergence of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model breakthroughs, falling hardware costs, and geopolitical industrial policy transformed humanoid robotics from a laboratory curiosity into a commercially deployed technology with measurable ROI in healthcare logistics, food service, and retail inventory management. China now commands an estimated 90% of global humanoid shipments — 140 manufacturers and 330 active models — while US firms lead in AI software value.

Claude Mythos: An Updated Review — From Leaked Draft to Project Glasswing

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Claude Mythos: An Updated Review — From Leaked Draft to Project Glasswing April 8, 2026 Abstract Ten days after Anthropic accidentally exposed its next-generation AI model through a CMS misconfiguration, the company formalized what the leak revealed: on April 7, 2026, Anthropic officially announced Claude Mythos Preview and launched Project Glasswing, a cybersecurity initiative giving 40 carefully vetted organizations exclusive access to the model. This review synthesizes all information available as of April 8, 2026 — integrating the original March 26 leak findings with the confirmed benchmark data, partner details, pricing, and safety assessment released at official launch.

Post-Quantum Cryptography: The Race Before Q-Day

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Post-Quantum Cryptography: The Race Before Q-Day The threat that keeps cryptographers awake isn’t a breach happening today. It’s the data that was stolen last year — sitting in an adversary’s archive, waiting for a quantum computer that doesn’t exist yet. By the time that computer arrives, the window to do anything about it will have already closed. Why This Problem Is Different Most security threats are reactive — an attacker exploits a vulnerability, a defender patches it.

Shadow AI: The New Shadow IT

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Shadow AI: The New Shadow IT Shadow AI is what happens when the productivity pull of generative AI outruns the governance infrastructure of organizations trying to contain it. It is Shadow IT with a faster clock speed, a bigger blast radius, and a compliance liability your legal team hasn’t fully priced in yet. The Pattern We’ve Seen Before Security teams have spent the better part of two decades chasing Shadow IT — the proliferation of unsanctioned applications, services, and devices that employees adopt because approved tools are too slow, too clunky, or simply don’t exist yet.

Managing Technical Debt in Hybrid Cloud Environments

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction Hybrid cloud was supposed to be a stepping stone. For most organizations, it became the permanent state. Migration timelines slipped, business-critical workloads stayed on-prem longer than anyone planned, and now teams are running infrastructure across two environments indefinitely — not by design, but by inertia. The problem isn’t the hybrid model itself. It’s that running workloads across on-premises and cloud infrastructure doesn’t just double your complexity; it multiplies the ways technical debt accumulates and hides.

Axios npm Supply Chain Attack: Incident Analysis & Response Guide

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Axios npm Supply Chain Attack: Incident Analysis & Response Guide Publication Date: March 31, 2026 Incident Date: March 31, 2026 (00:21–03:29 UTC) Severity Level: Critical Executive Summary What This Means The Incident On March 31, 2026, the Axios JavaScript library—one of the most widely used HTTP request packages in the world—was compromised through an attacker gaining unauthorized access to the npm account of a core maintainer. Two malicious versions (1.14.1 and 0.

Axios Supply Chain Attack: CrowdStrike Falcon Mitigation Guide

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Axios Supply Chain Attack: CrowdStrike Falcon Mitigation Guide Incident Date: March 31, 2026 (00:21–03:29 UTC) Guide Published: April 1, 2026 Severity: Critical Platform: CrowdStrike Falcon (All tiers) For the full incident narrative and non-Falcon detection logic, see the companion article: Axios npm Supply Chain Attack: Incident Analysis & Response Guide Overview On March 31, 2026, threat actors published two backdoored versions of the axios npm package (1.14.1 and 0.30.4) by compromising maintainer jasonsaayman’s npm account.

How AI Has Impacted the Modern Phishing Landscape

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Since November 2022—when ChatGPT launched—phishing has transformed from a labor-intensive attack vector into an industrialized threat operating at unprecedented scale. The statistics are staggering: researchers report a 1,265% to 4,151% increase in phishing emails since ChatGPT’s release, with AI-generated campaigns achieving a 54% click-through rate compared to just 12% for traditional attacks. What once took a skilled attacker 16 hours to craft now takes an AI system five minutes. The phishing landscape hasn’t merely evolved; it has been fundamentally restructured by artificial intelligence.

CMMC Compliant SSP Guide for Small Businesses

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A practical guide to understanding CMMC compliance and building a System Security Plan with limited IT staff and budget. Why CMMC Matters for Small Business What is CMMC? Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is the Department of Defense’s way of verifying that contractors protecting sensitive defense information have their security house in order. It’s not optional if you work with the DoD—it’s a requirement. If your small business: Sells to the Department of Defense Works as a subcontractor on DoD projects Handles Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Competes for federal contracts over $150,000 …you need CMMC compliance.

Claude Mythos & Capybara: A Comprehensive Research Report

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Claude Mythos & Capybara: A Comprehensive Research Report Research compiled 2026-03-28 Abstract On March 26–27, 2026, Anthropic accidentally exposed approximately 3,000 unpublished internal assets through a misconfigured content management system, inadvertently revealing the existence of its next-generation AI model: Claude Mythos. The model operates under a new tier designation called Capybara — the first tier above Opus in Anthropic’s product hierarchy. Anthropic has confirmed the leak and acknowledged that Mythos has completed training, describing it as “by far the most powerful AI model we’ve ever developed” and a genuine “step change” in AI capability.

Claude Skills Best Practices

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mental Model A skill is a Markdown file that extends Claude’s behavior. Think of it as a persistent instruction set Claude loads on demand — not a script that runs automatically, but a detailed playbook Claude reads and follows when the right task comes up. How Claude finds and loads skills: At session start, Claude scans all registered skill directories and loads only each skill’s name and description (the frontmatter). Full content is not loaded yet.

Shadow Stack — Local vs API Cost Analysis

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hardware TCO Sample Build: RTX 3090 24GB (used market, ~$700–800) Component Cost RTX 3090 (used) $750 Host server (Proxmox, used workstation) $400 32 GB RAM $80 1 TB NVMe $80 Power (600W system × 8h/day × $0.12/kWh) ~$21/month One-time hardware ~$1,310 Monthly power ~$21 Break-even calculation — you need to compare against API costs you’d otherwise pay. RTX 4060 Ti 16GB Build (~Budget) Component Cost RTX 4060 Ti 16GB $450 Mini PC / used workstation $200 16 GB RAM $40 512 GB NVMe $50 Power (250W × 8h × $0.

Shadow Stack — Running Local AI Models on Consumer Hardware

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What Is the Shadow Stack? The “shadow stack” is a local inference layer that runs alongside your cloud API usage. Instead of every prompt hitting OpenAI or Anthropic, lightweight or private workloads run on GPUs you already own. You choose the right tier per task. Three deployment tiers: Cloud APIs — Claude, GPT-4o, Gemini. Highest quality, per-token cost, zero ops. Local inference — Llama 3, Mistral, Phi-3 on your hardware. Fixed cost after setup, full data sovereignty.

About

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hey, I’m Ben I’m a IT Professional with many hats. I’m often in my office or lab, where I spend my days wrangling servers, automating the mundane, ensuring security, handling compliance, and occasionally putting out fires (metaphorical ones, mostly). Why This Blog? After years of solving problems and bookmarking Stack Overflow pages, I decided to start documenting my work. This blog is my digital notebook – a place to share:

Generating Active Directory User Reports with PowerShell

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of the most common requests I get is “Can you pull a list of all users in AD with X information?” Instead of manually clicking through ADUC, let’s automate it.

Building a Proxmox Home Lab on a Budget

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Every sysadmin needs a lab. Here’s how I built mine with Proxmox VE on repurposed enterprise hardware.