Info Risk Today Podcast

AI is accelerating cyberattacks faster than organizations can prioritize them, forcing security leaders to rethink how they define and defend against “emerging threats.” Most modern threats aren’t new, just amplified by AI, says Akamai's Brent Maynard.

AI is compressing cyberattack timelines from months to minutes. While segmentation has been a gold standard security practice for years, many organizations are still operating with outdated, static approaches.

Cancer research and treatment innovation - and the tech that powers that - requires a great deal of collaboration and data sharing among multiple parties. But keeping that sensitive information secure and private is crucial - and requires adherence to standards, said Baxter Lee of Clearwater.

An identity-based microsegmentation deployment at Main Line Health in Philadelphia is helping to control how its roughly 60,000 devices communicate across the network in order to protect clinical operations and limit the impact of potential cyberattacks, said Main Line Health CISO Aaron Weismann.

Attorneys can conduct security risks assessments under the color of client privilege, making it less likely to surface in discovery during litigation. But healthcare firms should consider the cons before they take that route, said attorney Adam Greene, partner at the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine.

Real and intense financial pressures on rural and small healthcare clinics mandate making difficult decisions on allocating funds to cybersecurity, said Greg Sieg, CISO at the University of Michigan Regional Health Network. "The funding is just not there."

Medical device cyber challenges are among the most complex for manufacturers and healthcare delivery organizations for a variety of reasons, but there are some promising developments underway that could help ease the pain, said Phil Englert of the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

For the U.S. healthcare ecosystem, the 2024 ransomware attack on Change Healthcare proved to be a supply-chain earthquake in showcasing critical third-party risk that entities now must carefully and urgently consider, said Erik Decker, CISO of Intermountain Health and a federal cyber adviser.

Long-life medical devices - products typically used for a decade or longer - are among the most post-quantum, cryptographically vulnerable technologies in healthcare, said Joern Lubadel, global head of product security at German-based medical device and healthcare products maker B. Braun.

Rural hospitals and clinics continue to struggle with a lack of cyber resources but a federal grant program set to provide $50 billion worth of funding across all 50 states could hopefully help lessen some of the pain, said Jim Roeder, VP of IT at Lakewood Health System in Minnesota.

To help strengthen the health ecosystem's overall incident response preparedness, the Health Sector Coordinating Council in coordination with the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center will in July host a first-ever nationwide virtual cyber exercise, said Greg Garcia, of the HSCC.

Many healthcare sector organizations are delaying to even begin contemplating - let alone strategizing - how to mitigate post-quantum risk - but procrastination is a major mistake, said Ali Youssef, director of emerging tech security, at Henry Ford Health.

Tools that could help healthcare providers - regardless of size - to prioritize their medical device vulnerability management is where artificial intelligence could make a significant impact, said David Brumley, chief AI and science officer at security firm Bugcrowd.

Healthcare CISOs and their teams often contemplate the benefits of going passwordless in their organizations but face pushback from clinicians concerned that the new tech will slow down their access to critical patient care systems or disrupt their workflow.

What often appears to be turf wars between healthcare technology management, facilities OT staff, IT departments and security teams are often the result of unclear ownership and accountability for device security. And that presents safety risks to patients, says Mohammed Waqas, CTO of Armis.

AI chatbots rank as the number-one health tech hazard in 2026, followed by "digital darkness" and legacy medical device cyber issues, said Rob Schluth and Scott Luney, technology and security experts at patient safety group ECRI Institute, which compiles an annual top 10 list. They explained why.

Discover how AI-driven segmentation is reshaping customer strategy in financial services. Learn how adaptive microsegmentation helps banks contain threats faster and strengthen resilience against modern attacks.

Attackers that want to use artificial intelligence tools to build ransomware or help run their cyber operations risk getting much less than they bargained for, said security expert Candid Wuest, in part because they'll still rely on known tactics that can be readily spotted and blocked.

As the compliance deadline quickly approaches for changes to align the federal rules for the confidentiality of substance use disorder records with HIPAA, entities that participate in so-called Part 2 programs still face critical unanswered questions, said attorney Aleksandra Vold of BakerHostetler.

Artificial intelligence use in healthcare is only as safe and accurate as the governance and trust frameworks surrounding it, particularly in clinical environments where errors or hallucinations can directly impact patient care, said Dave Bailey, vice president at consultancy Clearwater.

Britain will likely ban at least some types of ransom payments as it revamps the nation's cybersecurity laws, but many open questions remain, including sectors and the organizational sizes to be covered, and if all payments might be required to pass sanctions checks, said policy expert Jen Ellis.

Revisions to 42 CFR Part 2 that go into effect soon to better align federal regulations for the confidentiality of substance use disorder records with HIPAA require entities to adjust their compliance programs. But the changes aren't easy, said attorney David Holtzman, founder of HITprivacy LLC.

Large language models have a well-earned reputation for making things up. But for AI cybersecurity architect Erica Burgess, rather than being a bug, GPT hallucinations can be a threat-modeling feature. "I like to think of the hallucinations as just ideas that haven't been tested yet," she said.

Use cases of AI in healthcare will continue to expand in 2026 - including for back-office automation, ambient exam room documentation, claims processing and clinical decision support - but so will critical privacy, security, legal and other risks, said attorney Wendell Bartnick of law firm Reed Smith.

Implantable brain devices introduce a new and significantly more complex class of cybersecurity risk and critical privacy concerns, compared with traditional medical devices, given the sensitivity of neural data, says Professor Kevin Fu of the Archimedes Center at Northeastern University.

Healthcare sector mergers and acquisitions dramatically amplify cybersecurity and data privacy exposure for potential buyers and sellers, said attorney Jonian Rafti of law firm Proskauer. But there are critical steps entities can take to reduce those risks, he said.

Third-party security threats remain one of the most critical risks facing the healthcare sector. But now the increasing use of artificial intelligence by vendors adds a new layer of third-party concerns, said independent consultant Rick Doten, former healthplan CISO at Centene Corp.

Healthcare data breaches are becoming more frequent but smaller in scale, targeting smaller entities and high-value credentials and records - and AI is reshaping both the attack landscape and fraud patterns, said Jim Van Dyke, senior principal of innovation at TransUnion.

Preparing a healthcare workforce to responsibly engage with AI tools without over relying on automation or undermining human oversight will require awareness training akin to phishing exercises, said Skip Sorrels, field CTO and CISO at security firm Claroty.

Smart eyewear such as Meta-AI Ray Ban glasses - which sport microphones, cameras and can connect to artificial intelligence - pose emerging patient privacy and other risks especially when worn in healthcare settings, said Garrett Zickgraf of consulting firm LBMC.

Boards are becoming increasingly focused on understanding the mechanics and implications of agentic artificial intelligence, but traditional governance processes aren't built for the speed and complexity of today's AI-driven innovation cycles, said JoAnn Stonier, former chief data and AI officer at Mastercard.

Organizations are adopting agentic artificial intelligence as the next phase of AI. Kim Basile, CIO of Kyndryl, explains how organizations can prepare teams to work with agentic AI, emphasizing culture, training and governance as the crucial drivers of AI readiness and adoption.

New York State's stringent new cybersecurity requirements for many hospitals will have a ripple effect, raising the security bar and expectations for healthcare providers across many other states, predicts Chris Stucker, deputy CISO at Wisconsin-based Froedtert ThedaCare Health.

Rural and small community hospitals are continuing to face growing cyber challenges driven by limited and shrinking resources, staffing shortages, and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, said Jackie Mattingly, senior director at privacy and security consulting firm Clearwater.

While information blocking regulations were authorized under the 21st Century Cures Act nearly a decade ago, regulators are only starting to ramp up enforcement of the prohibited practices. Attorney Nan Halstead of Reed Smith explains critical steps organizations need to take to comply.

Microsegmentation no longer remains a buzzword. In today's threat landscape, organizations are adopting it as a frontline defense against cyberattacks and higher cyber insurance premiums. About 90% of organizations are using some form of segmentation, according to Akamai's 2025 Segmentation Impact Study.

Among pressing issues facing healthcare providers and health IT vendors is how artificial intelligence enabled tools such as AI assistants might further facilitate patients' access to records as well as the transmission of records themselves, said attorney Alisa Chestler of law firm Baker Donelson.

State cybersecurity regulations that apply to some hospitals in New York state go well compliance under the federal HIPAA security rule, posing expanded data governance challenges for providers, said Matthew Bernstein of consulting firm Bernstein Data.

A new AI-powered clinical decision support system developed by Google and NASA aims to help astronauts diagnose and treat medical issues during space missions - even when real-time communication with Earth is unavailable, said Chris Hein, field CTO of Google Public Sector.

New Texas health information legislation that began to go into effect on Sept. 1 includes several noteworthy provisions including requirements related to health record data storage and artificial intelligence, said regulatory attorney Rachel Rose. Rose explains the significance of the new state law.

Default credentials, weak passwords, misconfigurations and a variety of other security shortcomings are exposing millions of medical devices and their data on the internet, said Soufian El Yadmani, CEO and co-founder of Modat, who shared recent research findings.

Recent advisories from U.S. federal authorities on vulnerabilities in certain operational technology devices underscore the potential security risks that many healthcare providers frequently underestimate, said Sila Özeren, a security research engineer at Picus Security.

The use on online tracking tools on the health-related websites and apps of HIPAA and non-HIPAA regulated entities continues to be a lightning rod due to a long list of ongoing data privacy, regulatory and legal concerns, said partner and attorney Elizabeth Hodge of the law firm Akerman.

Why do AI agents require new identity governance approaches and the current controls not enough?

In this 15-minute podcast, identity experts examine key findings from recent industry research on machine identity governance and how you can secure them

Cybercrime gang Scattered Spider is the top suspect in several recent cyberattacks in the U.S. insurance sector, and it's likely that threat actors could still be lurking in other insurers' IT environments, said Peter McMurtrie of consulting firm West Monroe.

Rural hospitals and small medical practices must be creative and open-minded in when it comes locking down their digital footprint, said Jim Roeder, vice president of IT at Lakewood Health System. There's help from the private- and public-sectors and open source tools.

As healthcare providers and their vendors develop and implement agentic artificial intelligence and other AI tools, they need to throughly understand data privacy risks under HIPAA and other laws, said attorney Jordan Cohen of law firm Akerman LLP.