There used to be a pause in the rhythm of digital security. A software bug was found; the vendor created and tested and released a patch; and businesses had a comfortable few weeks to install it before hackers figured out how to use the flaw. In between there was time. Time for software companies to evaluate bug reports. Time for IT departments to test updates. Time for companies to schedule maintenance windows. Time, even, for procrastination. That world ended in 2026. The gap is disappearing. Security researchers are calling it “the Great Compression.” The timeline between discovering a…