Original post appeared here. 

Welcome to VMblog’s roundup of expert commentary in honor of Internet Safety Month! In this digital age, where connectivity and online activities have become an integral part of our lives, it is crucial to prioritize and enhance our understanding of internet safety. To help you navigate the vast landscape of online security, we heard from some of the industry’s top experts who have dedicated their careers to safeguarding users from potential threats, scams, and privacy breaches. Their valuable perspectives and advice offer a wealth of knowledge to ensure a safer online experience for individuals and families alike.

Internet Safety Month serves as a timely reminder of the importance of proactive measures to protect ourselves and our loved ones in the digital realm. Throughout this roundup, you will find a diverse range of ideas, as these industry experts bring their extensive experience and deep understanding of the evolving cyber landscape, shedding light on emerging threats and offering practical strategies to mitigate risks.

Let this compilation of expert commentary serve as a valuable resource to you. Stay informed, and take proactive steps towards a safer and more secure online experience.

Gidi Cohen, CEO and Co-Founder, Bonfy.AI

For years, “internet safety” meant keeping bad actors out: secure the network, harden the endpoint, train employees not to click suspicious links. That mindset made sense when most applications were static and data mostly stayed inside well-defined boundaries. But the way we use the internet has changed faster than our security assumptions. Today, our most sensitive information flows through browsers, SaaS apps, and AI systems in real time, often across organizational lines and into tools we do not fully control. In that world, the real safety question is no longer “Is this device safe?” but “Is this particular piece of data safe to use here, with this person, in this context?”

This shift is colliding with a second one: the rise of AI assistants, agents, and low code automation as default interfaces to the internet. Every time a user connects an AI assistant to a cloud drive, or wires a workflow into email and collaboration tools, they create new pathways for data to move—often in ways traditional controls never anticipated. Security teams are discovering that configuration alone is not enough; they may know which applications and agents exist, but they lack continuous, fine grained control over what specific information those systems can actually see, remember, or send back out. The result is a growing gap between how organizations think their data is being used online and how it is actually being used in practice.

Closing that gap requires treating internet safety as a data decision problem, not just an infrastructure problem. Organizations need three capabilities working together:

  • visibility into where their data lives and moves (from email to cloud file stores),

     

  • understanding of that data in business context (who owns it, how sensitive it is, which obligations apply), and

  • the ability to enforce policy as information flows between humans, applications, and AI systems in real time.

When those elements are in place, “safety” becomes less about saying no to new tools and more about establishing intelligent guardrails that allow teams to adopt AI and modern cloud services without blindly exposing their customers’ data to the internet. That is the path to a healthier trust boundary online: one where innovation and safety reinforce each other instead of being treated as opposing goals.

Original post appeared here.