The Spotlight, Spring 2026
AI is everywhere. And email is still the #1 attack vector.
People spend up to five hours a day in their inboxes for work. It’s where they read, respond, download and refresh — and where nuanced yet targeted attacks land with ease. With generative AI, phishing messages are more personalized and harder than ever to detect.
Our solution? Check Point’s advanced business email security solutions. Powered by AI, they offer industry-leading protection against spam, phishing, ransomware and more, stopping threats before the first click, and across inbound and outbound messages. Backed by our expert services, you get a proven 99.2% catch rate and a defense strategy built to keep pace with AI.
EXPERT EDGE
The right technology is just the start
Our professional services make the difference
Sometimes, avoiding risk isn’t about having the “right” tools — it’s about how technology is implemented, configured and managed over time. At any stage of business growth, without a clear strategy for access and integration — or for startups, when onboarding is complex and confusing — progress slows, IT tickets pile up, and the risk of breach grows.
Since day one, we’ve focused on making the process clear. From aligning goals and training teams to navigating regulations and managing software, we roll up our sleeves alongside you. In a fast-moving landscape, we combine emerging technology and security expertise with hands-on professional services. So with us, you’re not just adding tools, but learning how best to utilize them.
Faster setup. Earlier wins. Long-term partnership. That’s the Six Degrees way.
UP NEXT
Check Point Engage — June 17-18, Chicago
Not your typical trade show
For two days, Check Point Engage dives deep — with executive keynotes, AI-era security intel, technical breakouts, product roadmaps, and hands-on Genius Bar sessions. We’re especially looking forward to connecting in person and getting to know our customers better, while supporting Check Point, our premier partner.
Reach out to your sales rep with any questions.
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Safer Schools, Smarter Security — July 14 webinar (Noon CST)
Protecting K-12 schools from cyber risk
Join Six Degrees and Check Point for a Zoom designed around practical strategies to strengthen K-12 security. We’ll discuss device-level prevention that reduces reliance on legacy controls, explore enterprise-grade threat intelligence that won’t add to budgets or operational burden, and examine how AI is reshaping defense and risk.
Leave with actionable insights and field-tested approaches to better protect users and data across school and home environments.
NETWORK NEWS
Company updates from Six Degrees
Chris Rouch named CTO
Transitioning from VP of Sales, Chris steps into the Chief Technology Officer role. His move reflects our commitment to technical leadership within our company, and across each customer, partner and engagement.
Erez Levanon named Director of Sales
With Chris moving into the CTO role, Erez is stepping into a newly created sales lead position. He brings an extensive background in email security and client service to leadership within Six Degrees.
Randall Voorheis marks four‐years
Randall celebrates four years as our dedicated Check Point specialist across 12 western states. He’s a consistent presence and a hands-on advisor. In an industry that consistently sees rep turnover, Randall’s dedication and tenure truly mean something.
A Lean IT Team. A Growing Threat Landscape. How OFN Closed the Cyber Security Gap.
Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) is the nation’s leading network and intermediary focused on community development investment, managing more than $1 billion in total assets and a membership of...
Hybrid Mesh bridges connectivity divide in rural Maine school system
Enterprise security gives educators and families greater learning access
In rural areas, high latency and restrictive data caps can lead to slow, spotty connections that disrupt learning. Some schools also rely on legacy systems that increase exposure to evolving security threats, while across the education sector, schools are being challenged to offer maximum resources with modest budgets. A unified enterprise solution, built on hybrid mesh architecture, brings cost-effective, reliable connectivity to geographically-dispersed schools and their families.
Outdated infrastructure compromises security and performance
Bristol Consolidated School (BCS), a pre-K-8 school along Maine’s midcoast region, faced these challenges. Disparate open-source tools and a complex system were difficult to manage and increasingly vulnerable to spam and phishing, putting data at risk.
Sharing resources with neighboring schools further strained an aging security infrastructure. All users had to traverse a single connection via an antiquated server, resulting in poor network performance and frequent service lags. Multiple individual solutions across hardware, SaaS, and cloud environments supported learning on and off school grounds, yet recurring disruptions hindered instruction and stretched a five-person IT team. By the time BCS approached Six Degrees, the school had often used a plan for educators to teach without technology, since outages had become common and any improvements seemed financially out of reach.
Six Degrees defines strategy and funding path
BCS didn’t need more firewalls; it needed a unified security architecture that combined on-premises, cloud-native, and firewall solutions under a single management system. One that ensured consistent policy enforcement across dispersed IT environments, including branch offices, data centers, and remote users. The school’s IT team saw an opportunity in hybrid mesh as a way to bring diverse security enforcement into a unified console and sought Six Degrees to turn the idea into action.
To address funding and seek efficiency, Six Degrees designed a future-state proposal, noting current gaps and outlining tools, policies, and configurations to mitigate risk and meet compliance. This enabled BCS to secure zero-interest government funding to then implement a unified approach that included email and endpoint security and managed detection and response (MDR).
Modernizing to ease learning
Deploying a hybrid mesh approach strengthened technology access and overall visibility while reducing administrative overhead. A single management portal streamlined the school’s operations, while MDR services provided 24/7 monitoring by school staff as an extension of their IT team. Spam and phishing incidents dropped, false positives fell, and automated reporting improved efficiency. With Six Degrees guiding strategy through execution, BCS gained the stability needed for enhanced, uninterrupted learning.
The takeaway: Enterprise and endpoint solutions allow rural communities and multipremise school districts advance security and a direct path to stable learning environments. With more than 25 years in enterprise security and across the education sector, Six Degrees creates a clear way forward for schools and districts like BCS. Through cost efficiencies and a broad portfolio of technical solutions, we support administrators, teachers and students, and their larger communities.
Technologies & Expertise
Consulting & Professional Services | Cost Optimization | Enterprise Security | Hybrid Mesh | Check Point Training | Check Point Email Security
How AI is reshaping the future of IT and data security
From chatbot to autonomous agent, the AI evolution is changing the rules of data protection in real time
Artificial intelligence is one of the most prominent topics today, yet there’s still a gap between how often it’s discussed and how well its risks are understood. Given AI’s reach, it’s no surprise that it can directly affect data integrity, and understanding this impact—both its risks and opportunities—is foundational to effective safeguards.
In the Six Degrees realm of data and information security, AI is already abundantly in use. It’s able to organize and unlock vast amounts of information, scan for risks, coordinate threat responses and streamline decision-making.
It’s a critical tool in:
- Threat detection: analyzing network traffic and user behavior to surface anomalies that signal attacks
- Phishing and social engineering: studying tone and content in messaging to flag suspicious activity
- Identity, endpoint and access management: protecting entry points such as laptops and phones while efficiently stopping threats
- Data security: labeling and safeguarding sensitive information
AI has also developed beyond these applications. Where it was once primarily generative—acting as a conversational chatbot responding to prompts—it has since become increasingly proactive and autonomous in domains such as email security, security operations (SOC), endpoint and extended detection and response (EDR/XDR), and cloud network management. Modern AI can now execute multi-step processes with minimal or no human intervention, effectively becoming agentic.
From generative AI to agentic AI
Since 2024, AI’s rapid evolution toward independent execution and problem-solving has been transformative, particularly in data security and risk management. A recent Deloitte study revealed how companies are now deploying sophisticated AI agents that set goals, reason, use tools and APIs, and coordinate with people and other agents.
By 2028: Agentic AI Use
Nearly 3 in 4 companies plan to deploy it.
5% will use it as a core operational feature.
Source: The State of AI in the Enterprise, January 2026, Deloitte
And Forbes has predicted AI will continue moving and working alongside us, with agentic and multi-agent AI systems managing entire workflows once only controlled by humans. As AI evolves into this layered ecosystem, swiftly collaborating on both simple and complex tasks, a significant concern remains: governance. Sources like Forrester warn of major breaches without proper controls and systems in place.
When speed leads to exposure
In an era where speed is a critical metric, there’s an ever-present element of risk, particularly in data loss prevention (DLP). Traditional DLP tools were not designed for today’s AI‑driven, SaaS‑forward workplace, where sensitive data can leak through code repositories, generative AI tools and cloud integrations.
A Reddit post illustrated this vulnerability in 2025: a computer science student exposed a Gemini API key in a GitHub project they believed was private. Over the following months, attackers discovered the key and used it, running up a $55,444 bill on Google Cloud.
Each day, sensitive information flows into Slack messages, whiteboards, mockups and collaborative documents, then gets copied piecemeal into AI tools. In some instances, users deliberately exploit large language models with specially worded instructions to force unauthorized outcomes—a tactic often called prompt injection. “Without robust external guardrails and human oversight, there’s nothing stopping an AI agent from ‘helping’ a user right into a data breach,” said Six Degrees Security Consultant Tyler Spillane.
For any company with broad software access, everyone plays a role in security.
Want to see how easily AI guardrails can be bypassed? Play Gandalf, Check Point’s security challenge game. Trick the AI into revealing its secret password—it’s fun, but the implications for corporate data are sobering.
The good: You can ask an agent to ‘summarize all my emails from the weekend and flag any security alerts,’ and it just does it.
The bad: You’ve essentially given a bot the keys to the kingdom. If that agent has access to a directory containing sensitive company data without strict authorization, it’s not just reading it. It’s potentially exfiltrating it.
— Tyler Spillane, Security Consultant, Six Degrees Consulting
The new frontier: Model Context Protocol and agentic AI
Model Context Protocol (MCP) helps developers overcome integration challenges that once limited AI systems’ access to data and tools. As a connective layer, MCP enables AI models to evolve from passive chat interfaces into more active, agent-like systems. It lets large language model-powered applications securely call upon business tools and other internal databases so they can automate workflows, execute commands and retrieve up-to-date information. However, these same mechanisms that make MCP useful also create potential attack surfaces.
Advancing into automated, data-connected workflows requires new approaches to security, since the tools that empower these agents can also invite new threats.
Securing the AI lifecycle: The Six Degrees approach
To help businesses prepare and move forward in the AI era, Six Degrees has developed a three-pillar approach:
- Secure the model (Check Point AI Agent Security): We deploy AI Agent Security (previously known as Lakera Guard) as a shield that sits directly on the language model, providing real-time runtime protection against prompt injections and agentic exploits.
- Secure the user (Check Point AI Workforce Security): Through browser-based security and AI-specific DLP, we ensure that sensitive data—API keys, credentials and proprietary information—never leaves your environment through a prompt.
- Secure the environment (Check Point SaaS Protect): We provide visibility into which agentic platforms are being connected to your M365 or Google Workspace, reeling in shadow IT before it becomes a permanent integration.
Reducing risk in the age of AI
AI is a transformative technology, evolving from being an added layer to becoming a core part of the infrastructure itself. Agentic and multi-agent systems are beginning to manage entire workflows, expanding both efficiency and exposure. As autonomy increases, so does risk. Without proper security tools and clearly orchestrated processes, the possibility of a breach grows. And the first step isn’t a product, it’s a policy. Organizations need a written AI use policy that defines what “responsible” looks like in practice.
Six Degrees Consulting, together with Check Point, brings enterprise-level security to AI implementation, helping ensure speed and innovation aren’t at the expense of safety. To learn more about AI integration and protecting your business, contact a Six Degrees Security Specialist now.
Twenty-three years later, we continue to find joy in the challenge
With a team that is highly versatile, we have focused on steadily expanding and refining the techniques we apply to IT challenges.
The IT industry continues to mature and transform, and security expertise becomes more important every day. We're proud to still be developing solutions that ensure customers’ continued success. The ability to learn and change has been vital to our longevity, so we embrace the transformations in the industry as a chance to build even greater expertise in our team and to continue our evolution.
We look forward to the coming year with optimism and gratitude!
Six Degrees Consulting awarded 5-Star Partner certification by Check Point
Check Point announced it has awarded Six Degrees Consulting the 5 Star Partnership. The 5 Star Partner certification acknowledges Six Degrees’ achievement of a level of in-depth knowledge and superior service that ensures you get exactly the right solution to fit your company’s security needs.
“Six Degrees Consulting has received the 5 Star Partner award. This award highlights the investments they have made to provide the top-tier level of Check Point knowledge and support to their customers while maintaining excellent Check Point partnership standards. Throughout our 20 year collaboration, Six Degrees has continuously brought the highest level of security expertise to their customers while always maintaining a focus around Check Point products. Congratulations Six Degrees Consulting!” – Chris Hill, Channel Account Manager, Check Point
Enterprise licensing
Faster is the road to less cost
Enterprise licensing might seem like a straightforward area—just purchase what you need—but it can be very complex. Software licensing costs are often based on the number of cores used in a server. If you plan your server purchase to allow for growth, you might need to purchase and activate a 24-core server now yet only use a portion of it. The potential costs might tempt you to hold on to your current equipment as a way to save, but there is a better way.
Newer, faster, more powerful equipment and a well-executed enterprise licensing program can consolidate your license pool and increase value, providing overall cost savings.
Use fewer cores
New servers take advantage of higher clock speeds and more powerful cores, leading to dramatic improvements. An old server might require 32 cores and associated licensing to process data. A new server might require just 12 cores to process the same data. That’s just 37.5% of the original core requirement and only 37.5% of the previous licensing costs.
Activate only what you need
Core activition allows you to purchase a system and activate additional cores as your business grows. That means you don’t have to purchase a fully loaded system up front.
You might buy a 24-core system yet only enable the 6 cores you currently need. As a result, starting off you would only pay a quarter of the annual licensing costs you might expect. The other cores wouldn’t incure licensing costs until they were activated. Your saving could partially or fully cover the cost of purchasing the new system. Comprehensive planning can reduce your licensing costs by half over the life of the system.
Save on maintenance
Software maintenance often comprises 22% of the licensing charge. By consolidating workloads onto powerful servers that use fewer cores, you lower annual maintenance costs for immediate savings. (With older SPARC systems, software license, administrative and maintenance costs continue to climb.)
At Six Degrees Consulting, we have detailed knowledge of available licensing programs and how to balance licensing requirements with equipment and financial needs. Most importantly, this is always coordinated with your long- and short-term business goals.
Send an email to learn more about what you can do.
RELATED CASE STUDY
Technologies & Expertise
Cloud Infrastructure | Technical Costs Optimization | Cloud Deployment and Optimization | Assessments, Planning and Deployments | Consolidation, Migrations and Management
Securing the cloud
Although Azure, Google, Amazon, Oracle, etc. all have security tools and protocols in place to ensure that your data is protected from unauthorized access or attack, it’s best to think of these as just the start of your security. Often cloud service providers think and talk about security with a focus on protecting themselves from the customer rather than protecting the customer.
We’ve found that expertise in the granular details associated with each providers’ security controls is a good first step, but there are four other major steps you need to take when planning your cloud security.
Leverage your existing security
Just from a pragmatic perspective, it’s nice to be able to apply some of the security technologies and best practices you already have to the cloud services you move to. You should probably keep all of these security investments in place after the move; however, sorting through which technologies it is possible to reuse and determining how to do so can be a demanding job for your IT department.
Determine needs for additional security controls
So you are moving to the cloud. How do you figure out whether you need more security? Do you have to use different approaches to get your current level of security? For example, most cloud providers do not allow you to run a vulnerability scan without prior approval. Is that the case with your provider? Answering questions like these is a critical step in setting up solid security.
Budget for cloud security
You gain many efficiencies by moving to the cloud, but you don’t want to set up inaccurate expectations by forgetting to budget for security. The best approach is to add approximately 5% to 10% to cloud expenditures for security.
Control sprawl and provide governance
One issue that can come up as you move to the cloud is sprawl. Sometimes in the rush to meet project deadlines, cloud deployment power is placed in the hands of users rather than IT personnel. As a result, you run the risk of building temporary services across multiple providers (which later become permanent). Also you may leave users with more authorization than they require, creating the potential for high-impact mistakes. The ideal solution is a tool set that allows you to manage multiple cloud providers and authorization for each, all from one view.
Taking these four areas into account will greatly increase your success in the cloud. Feel free to reach out if you would like to schedule a conversation about cloud security. We can start with a simple call, engage in a workshop, or apply our Six Degrees Consulting discovery process.
Technologies & Expertise
Private IaaS | Public IaaS | SaaS | Assessments, Planning and Migration | Deployment | Security Optimization | Technical Cost Optimization | Cloud Deployment | Custom Training