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Two major cybersecurity incidents made headlines in the past two weeks, exposing risks for anyone running a business online.
For creators who host a website, collect emails, or use AI in their workflows—this is a problem worth paying attention to.
What happened: Two weeks ago, two critical vulnerabilities were discovered in PHP, the programming language powering most of the world’s websites including WordPress. The vulnerability means attackers anywhere in the world can run malicious code on your system, just by viewing your website.
Then, last week, hackers reportedly stole an estimated $6.3B from cryptocurrency exchange Binance in what could be the largest crypto heist on record. An initial investigation pointed to a compromised employee laptop, through additional security breaches were subsequently identified.
We spoke to cybersecurity creator Ed, a vulnerability researcher with 10+ years in cybersecurity and creator behind YouTube channel Low Level, about what happened and why it matters for creators:
“As creators we not only maintain records of our personal information and intellectual property on these systems, but also the information of our audiences,” Ed told us. “If you use WordPress to host a course site or lead magnet, compromise of that site could leak information, delete information, or have other malicious effects.”
Why AI makes it worse: Ed says AI introduces two risks—data security and agent autonomy.
“Any information you give to AI is being put somewhere that you don’t control or understand completely,” Ed said.
Uploading audience demographics or video ideas to an AI model means uploading that data to a server you don’t own, potentially with AI agents who need supervision.
“There have been several instances where, due to a syntax mistake made by the AI, the AI accidentally deleted someone’s entire hard drive or database,” Ed said. “You need to strike a balance between total automation and supervision.”
What creators can do: The PHP vulnerability was reportedly caught by AI, which means the same technology creating new risks is also becoming a tool for finding them.
But as creators add AI to their workflows, every new tool is a new door to vulnerabilities. AI can catch what humans miss, but it can also leak or delete what humans never would have.
Ed’s advice is to understand the technology you’re using and decide if the risk is within your tolerance.
“Make sure you define the ‘blast radius’ of what can go wrong, and make sure you have defenses put in place if that happens,” Ed said.
