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PODCAST

UnHack with Drex DeFord

This Week Health

Cyber-safety is patient-safety. On “UnHack,” Drex DeFord, veteran healthcare CIO and infused strategist, breaks down the biggest cybersecurity and risk challenges facing healthcare today. Drex and expert guests explore what happened, why it matters, and how to build real-world resilience. The show"s a mostly plain-English, mostly non-technical discussion that dives into the people, process, and technology making healthcare more secure; and it"s NOT just for cyber-professionals; it’s for everyone in

technology medicine

All Episodes

23:53

2025 Healthcare Recap: CIO Pressures, AI Advances,...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/29

December 29, 2025: As 2025 draws to a close, Drex, Sarah, and Bill gather to reflect on a year of struggles and triumphs. From unprecedented CIO turnover among top talent to the stark reality of workforce exhaustion, this candid conversation reveals why even quality leaders are finding themselves displaced. They explore how fear has stifled innovation, why AI advanced faster than expected with synthetic media, and how organizational culture emerged as the true differentiator in digital

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36:16

Reflecting on the 2025 AI Rush: What Worked, What...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/23

December 23, 2025: The AI revolution swept through healthcare in 2025, but did it deliver on its promises? Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson pull back the curtain on what really happened in AI this year—from North Korean deep fakes infiltrating hospital workforces to the sobering reality of billion-dollar AI investments with ROI timelines stretching to 2030. They reveal why ambient listening became the breakout use case, which organizations are actually making progress, and the

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22:04

Newsday: CMS ACCESS Model & Tech-Enabled Care with...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/19

December 19, 2025: CMS has unveiled its new ACCESS Model—an ambitious 10-year initiative aimed at expanding digital, tech-enabled care for millions of Medicare beneficiaries. In this discussion, Laura O’Toole, CEO of SureTest, joins Bill and Sarah to unpack how outcome-based reimbursement could finally accelerate innovation in remote monitoring and chronic disease management. They explore what this shift means for CIOs, including the need for stronger data interoperability, integrated analytics, and

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12:13

UnHack Rewind 2025: The Year Healthcare Cybersecurity...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/16

From crippling outages to AI-powered deepfakes, 2025 tested healthcare cybersecurity like never before. This year-end recap explores the moments that mattered most: how teams built resilience during system failures, why users became partners instead of "weak links," how identity became the new perimeter, and what it means when you can't trust your own eyes. Through powerful stories from the front lines, we revisit the lessons learned and the community that kept us standing. Because at the end of the

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04:56

2 Minute Drill: Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Spark a...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/15

A critical vulnerability called React to Shell exposed tens of thousands of systems worldwide, triggering immediate exploitation by threat actors—including China-nexus groups—within minutes of disclosure. Drex breaks down how this flaw turns innocent web requests into remote access backdoors, why CloudFlare's emergency response accidentally caused widespread outages, and what this high-stakes race teaches us about rapid response patching in healthcare. When attackers move at internet speed, your

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22:12

Newsday: How PhD-Level AI Agents are Changing...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/15

December 15, 2025: What if healthcare's biggest breakthroughs require throwing out the playbook? Joined by Daniel Schubert, CEO and Co-Founder of Revuud, this episode explores how AI is fundamentally reshaping healthcare IT strategy, from deploying countless virtual PhD-level agents across operations to rethinking patient access and workflow automation. Healthcare leaders discuss the challenge of prioritizing AI initiatives amid competing demands, the importance of creating organizational margin for

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23:45

Newsday: Preparing for Cloud Outages and Phishing...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/12

December 12, 2025: When cloud platforms like AWS and Azure experience outages, hospitals across the country feel the impact. But are healthcare organizations truly prepared for these disruptions? Charles Knight, Founder of EHC Consulting, explores the critical gaps in healthcare's cloud resilience strategies. From understanding single points of failure to running actual failover tests, this conversation reveals why documentation and operational readiness matter just as much as technical

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34:06

Solution Showcase: Innovating Data Centers to...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/10

December 10, 2025: Valley Medical Center's CIO and SVP, Brian Jones, faced a critical challenge: transform aging infrastructure while enabling his team to focus on data-driven healthcare delivery. In this candid conversation with Drex DeFord and Rackspace's Global Senior Client Executive, Jason Jones, Brian reveals how he disrupted the status quo through a bold partnership that reduced costs by 30%, eliminated unplanned downtime, and freed his team to innovate. Discover how Valley Medical achieved a

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24:41

Newsday: Streamlining Patient Access and Healthcare...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/08

December 8, 2025: Healthcare systems are drowning in administrative calls while patients struggle with fragmented portals and coordination nightmares. Will Akers, Chief Strategy Officer from Switchboard, MD, joins Bill Russell, Sarah Richardson, and Drex DeFord to unpack a stunning reality: 25-40% of health system calls are simple scheduling requests that could be automated today. Drawing from his experience having children in both Hong Kong and the US healthcare systems, Will reveals stark

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04:56

2 Minute Drill: How AI-Powered Scams Are Reshaping...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/03

Drex DeFord explores what he calls the "trust recession"—a era where deepfakes, AI-generated content, and sophisticated social engineering have made it nearly impossible to distinguish real from fake. From synthetic customer service agents to North Korean operatives using AI to pass job interviews at US health systems, the threat landscape has fundamentally shifted. DeFord shares practical strategies for healthcare professionals to protect themselves during the holiday season when cyber criminals

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34:35

Solution Showcase: Pro Security In Your Pocket With...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/03

December 3, 2025: When Will Houston, Network Security Manager at MDI Hospital, received security alerts at 5 AM on a holiday, he faced every healthcare leader's nightmare. But this story gets personal: among the 32,000 breach notifications he later sent were letters to his wife and two children. Join as Will sits down with Fortified Health Security’s Spencer Bales, VP of Product, and Preston Duren, VP of Threat Services, to explore how a small hospital in Bar Harbor, Maine, shut down 170 compromised

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33:41

Newsday: The AI Staffing Dilemma - The Productivity...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/12/01

December 1, 2025: As AI tools rapidly transform healthcare IT workflows, leaders face an unexpected challenge: what happens when your team becomes dramatically more productive? Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson explore the productivity paradox hitting healthcare organizations—when AI enables staff to accomplish in hours what once took weeks, do you need fewer people or different approaches? From closing open positions to managing "cozy" employees who've mastered automation, they debate

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02:44

2 Minute Drill: Insider Threats in Healthcare:...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/11/26

Drex examines the growing insider threat landscape in healthcare cybersecurity. The episode covers CrowdStrike's recent insider incident where screenshots were leaked to cybercriminals, new research showing 93% of organizations struggle to detect insider threats, and the Geisinger Health/Nuance $5 million settlement over improper data access. Drex also reveals how ransomware groups like Medusa are directly recruiting healthcare employees with financial incentives, highlighting that insider threats

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28:13

UnHack (the Podcast): Breaking Down Silos and...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/11/25

November 25, 2025: What if cybersecurity awareness training could be fun, like mixing bratwurst and flu shots? Shawna Hofer, CISO at St. Luke's Health System, shares how her team transformed security culture by meeting staff where they are—literally. From creating engaging one-minute videos featuring everyday healthcare workers to establishing a groundbreaking IT and cyber resiliency team that breaks down traditional silos, Shawna reveals why the best healthcare CISOs are expert translators and

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22:10

Newsday: Merger Madness and Why Hospitals are Moving...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/11/24

November 24, 2025: Healthcare organizations are drowning in applications they can't even inventory, especially after mergers and acquisitions. But the real shock comes when they try to access archived data years later. Dave Dyell, Managing Partner at Innovative Consulting Group, reveals why cloud storage fees are forcing health systems to rethink their entire archiving strategy, particularly for medical imaging. With AI initiatives on the horizon, the way you archive data today determines whether

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25:01

Newsday: Doing More with Less and Budgeting Wake-Up...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/11/21

November 21, 2025: What if your organization could reclaim millions of dollars just by rethinking processes you already have in place? Bill Willis, CTO of IDMWORKS, discusses the hidden costs plaguing healthcare IT, from runaway cloud storage bills to the shocking economics of password resets. Discover why identity management isn't just a security issue but a massive financial opportunity, how HR-IT integration is transforming onboarding from a week-long wait to day-one productivity, and why the

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04:10

2 Minute Drill: Cybercriminals Weaponize AI:...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/11/20

Cybercriminals are escalating their tactics by deploying AI-enabled malware that adapts in real-time. Google Cloud and Anthropic threat intelligence reports reveal attackers using tools like Prompt Flux malware to contact AI APIs mid-attack, rewriting code to evade detection. Threat actors are bypassing AI safety guardrails through social engineering, tricking models into providing malicious capabilities. The underground cybercrime market now offers sophisticated multifunction tools, lowering

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18:38

Executive Interview: How Complexity Kills Innovation...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/11/19

November 19, 2025: Healthcare IT infrastructure has become so complex that teams have lost sight of the actual patient impact. Kurt Telep, Healthcare Field CTO at Nutanix, pulls no punches in this conversation about what's broken and how to fix it. From his personal regret about avoiding Kubernetes when it first emerged to explaining why 95% of healthcare organizations will consume AI rather than build it, Kurt delivers hard-earned wisdom on navigating constant technological change. He reveals why

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26:44

Newsday: Security Culture Saves Hospital and Resource...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/11/17

November 17, 2025: How does a 25-bed critical access hospital successfully stop a cyberattack when larger health systems fall victim? George Pappas, CEO of Intraprise Health, unpacks the Colorado hospital that shows how security culture beats expensive technology. The conversation reveals why vendor transparency remains elusive despite high-profile breaches, explores the harsh reality of hospitals that know their vulnerabilities but lack resources to fix them, and tackles AI governance challenges

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03:04

2 Minute Drill: CISA Extension, Oracle Breach...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2025/11/12

CISA 2015's temporary extension buys time until January, but what happens next? Drex breaks down the Oracle E-Business Suite ransomware attack affecting 29 victims—including potential third and fourth-party partners in your supply chain. Plus, Google's $32B Wiz acquisition clears a major hurdle, and Armas' $435M funding round signals where security investment is heading. Keep your threat intel pipelines hot and your radar up.Remember, Stay a Little ParanoidX: This Week HealthLinkedIn: This Week

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