x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

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

23:06

Healthcare IT Is Drowning in Projects, Here’s Why |...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/04/27

April 27, 2026: Drex DeFord and Bill Russell are back on Newsday, and fresh off the 229 Summit, they're not pulling punches. Healthcare IT has a demand problem. Too many projects, not enough capacity, and an industry that's chronically bad at saying no. From the 229 Summit's sharpest takeaways to the Salesforce headless CRM announcement, the vl.js hack, and why Bill thinks Claude Code's "genesis key" is about to change everything, this episode covers the stories that matter most right now. If your

en

04:34

The Most Likely Way Into Your Network Is Still the...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/04/24

While the industry debates frontier AI models and nation-state threats, hospitals are still getting hit by ransomware through the same doors they've always left open. Drex zooms out to what's actually happening on the ground: massive patch cycles creating downstream operational pressure, countries reconsidering their software dependencies, and CISOs quietly doubling down on fundamentals. MFA, identity management, tested backups, network segmentation. The HICP documents are free, the roadmap already

en

25:34

Newsday: What Healthcare Gets Backwards - Building...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/04/20

April 20, 2026: What happens when you layer AI onto broken processes without fixing them first? Angel Mena, MD, CMO of Symplr, joins Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson on Newsday to answer that question with the kind of clinical candor only a practicing physician can bring. From ambient documentation to quality metrics to the credentialing chaos hiding inside every health system, this conversation exposes the gap between AI's promise and what healthcare leaders must do to close it

en

06:33

2 Minute Drill: How a 22-Year-Old Took Down the...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/04/15

The Kim Wolf botnet was the most powerful ever built — 2 million compromised IoT devices, a record-breaking 31.4 terabit DDoS attack, and it had the FBI, Google, and Cloudflare stumped. Drex breaks down how those cheap, forgotten devices in patient waiting rooms and break rooms became weapons inside hospital networks, and why 25% of Infoblox's enterprise healthcare clients were already compromised. Then comes the wild part: a 22-year-old RIT undergrad named Benjamin cracked the whole operation —

en

28:36

Newsday: AI, EHRs, and the Fight Health Systems Can't...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/04/13

April 13, 2026: Jacob Hansen, Chief Product and Technology Officer at AvaSure, joins Bill, Drex, and Sarah on Newsday for a conversation about the data governance battles quietly reshaping AI. From who owns AI model improvements derived from a health system's environment to whether EHRs should have control over how that data is used, Jacob pulls no punches. The conversation also tackles the evolving CIO title, the future of computer science careers in an AI-driven world, and why nursing may be one

en

06:00

2 Minute Drill: AI has now Hacked the Un-hackable...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/04/09

The window between vulnerability discovery and exploitation has collapsed — from 63 days in 2018 to negative. Now AI is changing the game entirely. Drex walks through how Anthropic's unreleased model Mythos autonomously found a critical zero-day in the Ghost CMS, wrote its own exploit, and extracted sensitive credentials in under two hours — all without a CVE ever existing. Add in two accidental Anthropic data leaks in the same week, and the story gets more complicated. For healthcare organizations,

en

13:47

Executive Interview: Maximizing Security with the...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/04/08

April 8, 2026: Frank Duff, Chief Innovation Officer at Tidal Cyber, and one of the original architects of the Mitre ATT&CK framework, joins Drex DeFord on UnHack to expose an uncomfortable truth: most organizations are sitting on powerful security tools they've never fully turned on. Drawing from 18 years at Mitre and deep experience running ATT&CK evaluations, Frank explains how Tidal Cyber bridges the gap between what vendors build and what customers actually deploy. Squeezing more out of

en

21:31

Newsday: Healthcare Caught in the Crossfire of Iran...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/04/06

April 6, 2026: The rules of warfare have changed, and health systems are caught in the middle. On this episode of Newsday, Sarah Richardson and Drex DeFord break down two stories that should be on every healthcare leader's radar: the IRGC's declaration that major tech companies are now legitimate combatants, and what the Stryker attack reveals about the fragility of the healthcare supply chain. From cloud co-location risk to vendor contract language, this conversation reframes what resilience

en

13:20

Executive Interview: Securing Healthcare's Hidden...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/04/01

April 1, 2026: James Winebrenner, CEO of Elisity, joins Drex DeFord to unpack one of healthcare cybersecurity's most persistent challenges, the sprawling, unseen attack surface hiding inside hospital networks. From unmanaged clinical devices to IoT systems running alongside regulated medical equipment, James breaks down how Elisity helps health systems move from visibility to control without re-engineering their networks. He also shares what The Pitt gets right about what really happens when a

en

05:53

2 Minute Drill: Who's Managing Your AI Agents? The...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/31

Drex makes the case for a role that doesn't exist yet but probably should: VP of Non-Human Resources. As AI agents multiply across health system environments, often deployed by vendors without oversight, the management infrastructure simply isn't keeping up. Agents have access, make judgment calls, and operate inside frameworks that affect patients and business operations, yet most have no job description, no onboarding, and no performance review. Drawing on signals from Harvard Business Review,

en

36:18

Newsday: Hackers Outpace Healthcare Resilience and...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/30

March 30, 2026: Bill Russell and Drex DeFord dig into three of the biggest stories shaping healthcare IT right now. From the seismic Sutter Health and Allina Health merger, the Stryker cyberattack carried out by an Iranian-linked group Handala, and the sobering reality that threat actors like Tycoon 2FA are back online within 15 days of being taken down, this episode covers the frontlines of healthcare IT. Key Points:00:23 Sutter Allina Merger Realities07:29 Advice for Staff During M&A11:17

en

03:51

2 Minute Drill: What Hackers Can Teach Healthcare...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/27

Drex revisits the FBI and DOJ takedown of HANDALA, the Iranian-backed hacking group behind the Stryker wiper attack—and surfaces an uncomfortable lesson. Within 24 hours, the group was back online with new domains, same operations, same message. That's not a footnote. That's a case study in resilience. While healthcare organizations ask "how do we prevent this from happening," adversaries are asking "how fast can we rebuild when we lose everything?" The real challenge isn't just stopping

en

14:21

Executive Interview: ROI or Bust - Why Emotions No...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/27

March 27: 2026: Live from HIMSS 2026, Drex DeFord sits down with Eli Tarlow, Director of Industry Strategists at CDW, for a candid conversation about the state of AI in healthcare. Eli breaks down the evolution from AI curiosity to AI accountability, where gut feelings have been replaced by hard business plans, measurable ROI, and a closing-the-loop mentality that puts operational leaders on the hook for results.Key Points:01:44 AI Maturity Shift03:05 Proving ROI With AI06:05 Accountability and

en

11:25

Executive Interview Live at HIMSS 26’: Zero Breach...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/25

March 25, 2026: Gerry Miller, Founder and CEO of Cloudticity, has spent 15 years helping healthcare organizations harness the cloud securely. In this live conversation at HIMSS 2026, Gerry breaks down why health systems are accelerating their move to the cloud and how multi-cloud strategies are shifting from redundancy plays to service optimization.Key Points:02:33 Multi Cloud Strategy04:39 ROI and Security08:24 Future Data and AIX: This Week HealthLinkedIn: This Week HealthDonate: Alex’s Lemonade

en

27:39

UnHack the Podcast: Building a Security-First Culture...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/24

March 24, 2026: Steven Ramirez, VP, CTO and CISO at Renown Health, joins Drex DeFord to pull back the curtain on how a mid-large health system keeps security at the center of everything — without becoming the department of no. From board-level briefings and identity-first defenses to a Databricks cloud buildout and a governance framework that puts security review on every DocuSign, Steven breaks down why good relationships and strong intake processes beat politics every time. This is a candid,

en

17:06

Newsday: The Conference Nobody Can Afford to Skip...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/23

March 23, 2026: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson are back with a packed Newsday covering three big conversations: the AI security crisis no one is talking loudly enough about, what HIMSS 2026 actually delivered for healthcare leaders, and the real question facing every CIO and CMIO right now: Is your time worth attending two major conferences each spring?Key Points:01:03 AI Chatbot Security04:25 MIT AI Strategy Class06:55 HIMSS Takeaways and Trends10:40 Conference Value and Wrap UpX:

en

09:41

2 Minute Drills: Building an Agentic AI Hacker with...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/23

Drex unpacks a signal hiding across several recent stories: we may be deploying AI well ahead of our ability to secure it. From an autonomous AI agent that breached a consulting firm's internal chatbot in two hours, gaining access to 46 million employee messages, to a multi-agent experiment where AI systems escalated privileges, forged credentials, and disabled antivirus software entirely on their own, the pattern is unsettling. Add a publicly available AI prescribing tool in Utah that researchers

en

04:58

How AI Is Supercharging the Same Old-School Attacks...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/20

March 20, 2026: Recorded live at HIMSS 2026, Ryan Witt, VP of Industry Solutions at Proofpoint, cuts through the AI hype to expose what's actually driving healthcare's most damaging cyber events. Ryan breaks down why identity and credential theft remain the primary attack vector, how threat actors exploit collaboration tools and email to compromise trusted relationships, and why the rise of ambient AI in clinical settings is creating new data security risks.Key Points:What Proofpoint DoesTop Threat:

en

12:30

Executive Interview Live From HIMSS ‘26: From CapEx...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/18

March 18, 2026: For years, healthcare leaders debated whether public cloud was ready for mission-critical platforms like Epic. Today, the question has shifted from if to when. Tim Calahan, Founder of EHC Consulting brings a rare perspective to the conversation, one shaped by actually running the migration from inside a major academic health system. After serving as CTO at Michigan Medicine and leading their move to Azure, Tim now helps health systems navigate the financial, operational, and security

en

30:52

Newsday LIVE at HIMSS '26: AI Agents, Workforce...

UnHack with Drex DeFord ·

2026/03/16

March 16: What are healthcare leaders really talking about at HIMSS? Bill Russell sits down with Sarah Richardson and Drex DeFord to share insights from the executive and cybersecurity forums—and the hallway conversations in between. AI dominates the discussion, but not just in clinical care. The hosts highlight the overlooked opportunities in operational workflows, patient outreach, and administrative efficiency. They also confront uncomfortable realities around workforce displacement, escalating

en

89 results

Similar Podcasts

Lead With AI

Tamara Nall

Linux in the Ham Shack

Black Sparrow Media

Data Engineering Podcast

Tobias Macey

Eye On A.I.

Craig S. Smith

Reflections

Livewire Labs