Info Risk Today Podcast

The $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill signed into law last week by President Joe Biden contains new cybersecurity requirements for medical devices that make it a game changer for strengthening security within the healthcare ecosystem, says Dr. Suzanne Schwartz of the FDA.

Hospitals must not only prepare in advance for ransomware and other debilitating attacks on their organizations, but also for responding to the effect of cyber incidents at neighboring facilities, says Dr. Christian Dameff of the University of California San Diego.

In this episode of "Cybersecurity Unplugged, Stan Golubchik, founder and CEO of ContraForce, discusses the company's mission, beginnings and plans for expansion. Golubchik says ContraForce answers the "need for a stronger generalist workforce for cybersecurity."

Many healthcare organizations struggle to recover from ransomware attacks, putting clinical procedures and patient safety in jeopardy during the process, says Steve Cagle, CEO of privacy/consulting firm Clearwater. "They need to think about how the technology is supporting the business," he says.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report shares tips for security leaders to navigate the threat landscape next year, discusses cybersecurity and privacy policy shifts to watch, and explains why global political and economic instability should not be cause for cybersecurity budgets to drop.

In this episode of "Cybersecurity Unplugged," Liran Paul Hason, co-founder and CEO of Aporia, discusses the current state of machine learning and artificial intelligence in cybersecurity and the most interesting and promising applications for these technologies right now.

A carefully honed zero trust approach can allow healthcare entities to reduce pushback from clinicians while still "raising barriers appropriately" to prevent security incidents, says Dr. Eric Liederman, director of medical informatics and national privacy and security leader at Kaiser Permanente.

Effective testing of incident response plans continues to be a major weakness for many healthcare sector entities, especially those facing ransomware and other disruptive incidents, says Van Steel, a partner at consultancy LBMC Information Security.

The planned merging of two health data exchange standards organizations - DirectTrust and the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission - will help support healthcare sector efforts to advance secure health data exchange, says Scott Stuewe, CEO of DirectTrust.

In this episode of "Cybersecurity Unplugged," Joe Weiss, managing partner at Applied Control Systems, offers suggestions for how to harden our OT networks today, including what CISOs need to know and how guidance from the federal government needs to change.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses why it is always a bad idea for organizations to pay hackers for data deletion, practical steps organizations can and should take to avoid being at the heart of a data subject complaint, and the latest efforts to tackle the ransomware threat.

As major cyber incidents involving vendors surge, healthcare entities must carefully and continuously scrutinize the security practices of their third-party vendors, says Kathy Hughes, CISO of Northwell Health.

A ransomware attack knocking out a medical center's imaging and lab equipment is an incident felt by an entire network of healthcare providers. Entities everywhere should plan for outages even when they don't directly experience an attack, say Aftin Ross of the FDA and Penny Chase of MITRE.

After years of digital transformation, cloud migration and deployment of hybrid workforces, enterprises have more endpoints than ever, which makes it important to take endpoint security to a whole new level. Pat Correia of Cisco Security shares five tips for choosing endpoint security.

Businesses should capitalize on AI, ML and robotic process automation to address every event rather than just ignoring the ones deemed unimportant by a SIEM. Palo Alto Networks founder and CTO Nir Zuk says AI can be used to probe security incidents in real time rather than waiting for a breach.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses how investigators saw the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX as "one of the biggest financial frauds in American history," how CISOs can guard against their own liability, and major security and privacy shifts and the outlook for 2023.

Companies have transitioned since COVID-19 began from lifting and shifting their existing apps to the cloud to entirely rebuilding their applications in cloud-native form. Palo Alto President BJ Jenkins says companies need "shift left" security to get protection as they're coding and building apps.

When healthcare organizations come together through mergers or acquisitions, it is critical for the entities to carefully assess the cyber risk each poses, as well as its level of cyber maturity, says Jigar Kadakia, CISO and chief privacy officer at Boston-based Mass General Brigham.

The $250 million acquisition of Cider Security will allow Palo Alto Networks to secure a piece of code from development to its implementation in a runtime environment. CEO Nikesh Arora says the company must understand the tool sets and open-source widgets coming into the customer's supply chain.

Defenders have made strides in disrupting ransomware, but assessing the effectiveness of countermeasures is tough due to a scarcity of information, says cybersecurity veteran Jen Ellis. "We know what the tip of the iceberg looks like, but we don't know what percentage of that iceberg we can see."

The Health Sector Coordinating Council is embarking on a five-year strategic plan to help the healthcare and public health sector address future cybersecurity threats, risks and associated difficulties, says Greg Garcia, executive director for cybersecurity at HSCC.

This week's edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses the mistakes enterprises commonly make when building ransomware defenses, the cybersecurity capabilities being built by the U.S. Department of Energy, and the first female CEO at Securonix - one of only a handful in the vendor community.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses why too few organizations admit to being victims of ransomware attacks, how delayed enterprise subscription start dates forced CrowdStrike to cut sales forecasts, and leveraging threat intelligence to protect critical infrastructure.

The shortage of cybersecurity professionals in the United States includes a scarcity of expertise in medical device security, says Bill Aerts, senior fellow and managing director of the University of Minnesota's recently launched Center for Medical Device Cybersecurity.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses how the profits of ransomware group Zeppelin have been smashed by security researchers, FTX again highlighting the risks of trading cryptocurrencies, and vendor Extrahop's newly appointed, high-profile president.

Successful account takeovers are one of the most common ways that organizations end up with attackers in their systems. But strong authentication can thwart even the most clever phishing campaigns, says Brett Winterford, regional chief security officer for APJ at Okta.

On the heels of the recent FTX financial meltdown came the theft of millions of dollars that left thousands of investors, exchanges and others in the lurch. Hugh Brooks of CertiK shares the status of data that FTX stores, the role of regulations and best cybersecurity practices for crypto exchanges.

On the heels of the recent FTX financial meltdown came the theft of millions of dollars that left thousands of investors, exchanges and others in the lurch. Hugh Brooks, director of security operations at CertiK, shares how the funds may have been stolen and what happens next.

A decade ago, ransomware was one of the internet's petty street crimes, but it has now evolved into a major threat. Tech reporter Renee Dudley, the co-author of a new book titled "The Ransomware Hunting Team," says the FBI lost ground early on in the fight against ransomware.

Despite the strategic priorities laid out by the Biden administration and initial indicators provided by the Department of Defense, it's unclear how the next national defense strategy will prioritize threats and define the primary role of the U.S. military. Chris Dougherty discusses cyberwarfare.

Complexity is the enemy of security, and information technology grows ever more complex. Have we created a problem space in computing so complicated that we will be unable to safely operate in it for its intended purposes? Fred Cohen says that's unlikely. He discusses managing risk in the future.

This edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses how Australian health insurer Medibank is facing stark consequences for not paying a ransom to a group of cyber extortionists, how to limit unnecessary cybersecurity exposure during M&A, and how to manage challenges in hybrid environments.

Aging medical imaging devices are among those most vulnerable to security incidents, often due to misconfigurations and a lack of security controls, says Elisa Costante, vice president of research at security firm Forescout. She discusses how vendors can reduce security risks in connected products.

In this episode of "Cybersecurity Unplugged," Dr. Chris Miller, an associate professor of international history at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, discusses the cybersecurity aspects of the Russia-Ukraine war and how perceptions of the two countries may have been inaccurate.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses how Australian health insurer Medibank is deliberating on whether to pay a ransom to extortionists, analyzes the growing number of layoffs in the security vendor space, and shares a tribute to threat intelligence researcher Vitali Kremez.

It's no secret: As pharmaceutical companies develop new health treatments, adversaries seek to steal or sabotage their intellectual property. This dynamic adds extra urgency to authentication. Tom Scontras of Yubico talks about how the pharma sector approaches authentication.

Security and ease of use: It is one thing for nonhealthcare entities to debate these merits of new authentication in solutions. But in healthcare, where the decisions directly affect patient safety, the stakes are critical. Tom Scontras of Yubico talks about how healthcare approaches authentication.

Many entities fight an uphill battle against increasingly clever phishing and related scams that lead to serious data compromises, say former CIA analyst Eric Cole and former Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General David Kris, who are both advisers at security firm Theon Technology.

Too many medical device makers don't pay close attention to the fine details and features of their product designs to ensure they are safe and secure, says Naomi Schwartz, a former product reviewer at the Food and Drug Administration and current cybersecurity adviser at security firm MedCrypt.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses how Russian-speaking ransomware gangs have their eyes on a new target, offers the latest on Australia's data security reckoning and the government’s response, and outlines emerging trends in customer identity and access management.

Cyberattacks on healthcare entities result in poor patient outcomes, including delayed procedures and even a rise in mortality, according to a recent survey conducted by research firm the Ponemon Institute. Ryan Witt of Proofpoint, which sponsored the study, discusses the findings.

A study by data privacy firm Lokker found thousands of healthcare providers deploying Facebook Pixel and other similar tracking tools. Those trackers reveal "medical and other data that consumers don't know is being tracked and haven't authorized," says Ian Cohen, Lokker's chief executive officer.

Plan for a ransomware attack the same way you plan for a hurricane, says Paige Peterson Sconzo, director of healthcare services at security firm Redacted Inc. A cyber incident capable of disrupting network connectivity requires careful thinking about how to revert to the pre-internet era.

Security flaws in a vital signs monitoring device from a China-based manufacturer could allow hackers to launch an attack that spreads to all other devices connected to the same network. This is among the most serious security issues involving medical devices, says Jason Sinchak of Level Nine.

CEO Yotam Segev says Cyera eschews the focus of data loss prevention tools on blocking users from pulling down data and instead embraces an approach that reduces friction. Cyera has sought to safeguard data by making preventative changes in areas like configuration, permissions and security posture.

The latest ISMG Security Report examines whether banks should be held liable for the rapidly increasing Zelle fraud problem, explores the latest M&A activity among IAM vendors, and discusses the implications of the new legal framework for personal data transfers between the U.S. and Europe.

In this episode of "Cybersecurity Unplugged," as the use of Kubernetes and cloud containers over traditional forms of storage continues to increase, Nikki Robinson of IBM discusses the benefits of breaking down "complicated environments into something that's tangible and easy to manage."

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses how adversaries have a new favorite tactic to circumvent MFA, why vendor Akamai is an appealing target for private equity, and what the industry can do differently to attract more females to leadership roles.

What if you were hired for an office job but ended up negotiating with cybercriminals? There aren’t many rules around ransomware, but this is a story about one rule that was definitely broken. By the end, the path to the truth led to a place on the other side of the world where no one wanted to be.

In this episode of "Cybersecurity Unplugged," Amit Shah, director of product marketing at Dynatrace, discusses the implications of the Log4Shell software vulnerability and the need for organizations to take an observability-led approach to software development and security going forward.