There's something disarmingly civilised about being invited to breakfast to discuss the collapse of civilised infrastructure. But that's precisely the mood at a recent media briefing with Cisco Talos, the threat intelligence division quietly standing between organisations and the adversaries trying to dismantle them. The format was simple: coffee, food, and a candid walkthrough of Talos's 2025 Year in Review with the people who wrote it. What followed was one of the more grounding conversations I've had in cybersecurity journalism. The Invisible Layer Most Cisco customers, as Carl Solder, CTO for Cisco Australia and New Zealand was quick to point out, have no idea Talos exists. They buy the firewall. ...