Agents Don't Get a Pass: Governing Digital Identity | Executive Interview with Adam Hawkins

Agents Don't Get a Pass: Governing Digital Identity | Executive Interview with Adam Hawkins

July 15, 2026: Adam Hawkins [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahawkins/], EVP, Healthcare and Life Sciences at Cyderes [https://www.cyderes.com/], has spent more than 20 years at the intersection of clinical operations and cybersecurity, from co-founding a clinical decision support startup in college to building Cyderes's healthcare vertical from the ground up. Drex DeFord and Adam cover what the sprint to AI actually looks like from the security side, why most health systems are building guardrails while the car is already on the freeway, and the emerging concept of "blast radius", understanding not just what's vulnerable, but what actually breaks when something goes down. The conversation ends with a clear-eyed look at the next five years: machines versus machines, and what that shift means for healthcare security leadership. Key Points: * 01:22 Adam’s Early Healthcare Start * 05:10 Lessons from Robert Hershebeck * 07:30 Today’s Biggest CISO Challenge * 09:49 Security Context and Blast Radius * 13:03 Machines vs Machines Future Keep up to date on the latest in health IT: https://thisweekhealth.com/news/ X: This Week Health [https://twitter.com/thisweekhealth] LinkedIn: This Week Health [https://www.linkedin.com/company/ThisWeekHealth] Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer [https://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/3173454]

Exploring AI Wellness Coaches and Epic Leadership Stepdowns | Newsday With This Week Health

Drex and Sarah join to discuss how board members are quietly using personal AI tools to review confidential health system materials, and most organizations have no policy for it. From there, the conversation gets personal. Sarah shares how she uses her AI agent as a real-time wellness coach, adjusting nutrition and habits on the fly. Drex unpacks his experience with WHOOP and asks the question every wearable user should be asking: when you clicked accept, who actually owns your data? Then the conversation shifts to Epic's Su Mi, his decision to step away, and what it reveals about identity, purpose, and the cost of never stopping Key Points:  * 02:38 Secure Tools and Training * 06:56 Wellness Coach in Your Pocket * 12:02 Epic Leadership Shift * 17:15 Purpose and Closing Thoughts X: This Week Health [https://twitter.com/thisweekhealth] LinkedIn: This Week Health [https://www.linkedin.com/company/ThisWeekHealth] Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer [https://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/3173454]

AI Just Ran Its Own Ransomware Attack and Almost Got Away With It | 2 Minute Drill with Drex DeFord

A threat researcher at Sysdig was picking through the logs of a recent breach when something stopped him cold. The attacker moved too fast. No pauses, no fumbles, no fatigue. Over 600 payloads fired in sequence. When one failed, it read the error and adjusted. One time, from a failed login to a working fix in thirty-one seconds. No human does that. Buried in the attacker's code were comments -- the kind a chatbot writes when it's reasoning through a problem. No person was at the keyboard. An AI agent had run the entire heist: reconnaissance, credential theft, lateral movement, persistence, and finally locking up 1,300 configurations before leaving a ransom note. Sysdig calls it Jade Puffer, and they believe it's the first ransomware attack ever run end-to-end by an AI. The entry point was a vulnerable open-source AI tool sitting on the internet with cloud credentials right behind it. Health systems are bolting AI onto every workflow right now. Every one of those tools is a new door. The skill floor for running a full ransomware operation just dropped to the cost of an agent subscription. Drex has a few questions for your next leadership meeting. Remember, Stay a Little Paranoid X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex's Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

Browser-First Security Rethink Health System CISOs Need | Google Friday with Bill Reid

July 10, 2026: Bill Reid [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-reid-46208a1/], Healthcare and Life Sciences Lead in the Office of the CISO at Google [https://www.google.com/about/careers/applications/?utm_campaign=profilepage&utm_medium=profilepage&utm_source=linkedin&src=Online/LinkedIn/linkedin_page], has spent his career working with health system security leaders, and he keeps running into the same blind spot: healthcare is underestimating the browser as an attack surface. Drex DeFord sits down with Bill to explore why the shift from thick client infrastructure to a secure, browser-first endpoint model is no longer theoretical. It is what resilient health systems are building. From managing transient clinical staff to simplifying a fractured endpoint environment, Bill makes the case for why the browser is the future of healthcare endpoint security. Key Points: * 01:21 Browser Attack Surface * 03:39 Resilient Endpoint Posture * 05:40 CISO-CIO Conversation LinkedIn: 229Project [https://www.linkedin.com/company/229p] Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer [https://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/3173454]

The Directionless AI Phenomenon and the Technology IT Can’t Say No to | Newsday

July 6, 2026: Bill Russell, Drex DeFord, and Sarah Richardson are back from four executive summits in Napa, covering CIOs, Chief Application Officers, Chief Analytics Officers, and CNIOs. The through-line across every room? AI pressure is intense, budget cuts are real, and a clear leadership vision is nearly impossible to find. From nurses being left out of decisions they should be driving, to analytics leaders managing a shadow IT explosion, to health systems already quietly building agents for referrals and claims, this is an unfiltered read on where health IT actually stands right now. Key Points: 01:05 Napa Summit Themes 04:55 Nursing Wins and Workflow 07:22 IT Demand and AI Vision 13:20 Bright Spots and Agent Builds LinkedIn: 229Project [https://www.linkedin.com/company/229p] Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer [https://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/3173454]