Paul Kedrosky said October accounted for 5.2% of critical software vulnerabilities reported historically, while warning that AI capabilities could widen the scale and speed of discovery and exploitation.
In a post published Saturday, Oct. 24, Kedrosky described 2026 as a sharp acceleration in vulnerability disclosures after years of more gradual increases. He said monthly reports had climbed to several times 2025 levels.
Kedrosky estimated that October’s disclosures amounted to 5.2% of the all-time reported total for critical software vulnerabilities. He also wrote that about half of the critical flaws ever found had been found in 2026, a claim about when vulnerabilities were found rather than when they were disclosed.
He pointed to the large installed base of aging software that receives little maintenance and remains connected to other systems. Kedrosky argued that more capable AI systems could help locate and exploit weaknesses much faster and at greater scale.
As an example of the threat, he cited the Port of Los Angeles, which he said had recently reported more cyberattacks in a month than it had seen in entire years before 2020.
