🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

A fake extension helped illustrate a roughly US$400 million opportunity

• Koi’s founders tested demand by publishing a fake Visual Studio Code, or VS Code, extension called “Darcula Official.” It quietly sent developers’ source code and machine details to an external server 1.
• Within a week, it reached more than 300 organizations. Targets included one of the world’s largest Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) vendors and a national court network, and it landed on the VS Code Marketplace front page 2.
• The test argued that many security products focus on executables and operating systems. They often miss risks from non-executable software such as developer packages and integrated development environment (IDE) extensions 3. It also covers containers, Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that connect AI models to external tools and data, and AI models 3.
• These components outnumber executable files by orders of magnitude. Many stay unmanaged and hard for corporate security teams to spot 3.

The endpoint security battleground shifts toward governance of agentic tools

• Palo Alto Networks is tying the acquisition to a category it calls “Agentic Endpoint Security” (AES). The pitch centers on protecting AI agents and the systems they can access 4.
• The approach assumes agentic AI tools may run with access to sensitive data and critical systems. Palo Alto Networks described that risk as the “ultimate insider threat” 4.
• The focus moves beyond catching malicious behavior on devices while software runs. It also pushes governance upstream to the software supply chain that feeds endpoints, including AI agents and plugins 2.
• Palo Alto Networks plans to keep Koi as a standalone product. The company says it can work alongside existing EDR tools, including non-Palo Alto options 4.