Advertise on podcast: UnHack with Drex DeFord

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 before the opportunity slips away. Key Points: 00:37 Clinicians and Tech Today 07:44 Beyond the AI Hype 14:49 Admin Burden Credentialing 18:44 Governance Change and Wrap Keep up to date on the latest in health IT: https://thisweekhealth.com/news/ X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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 — while studying for midterms — using Discord, Telegram, and a perfectly timed cat meme. His research ultimately fueled a coordinated takedown on March 19th, 2026, that brought Kim Wolf from 2 million active devices to roughly 30,000. The lesson for healthcare: those forgotten IoT devices on your network aren't harmless. They're potential soldiers in someone else's army. Remember, Stay a Little Paranoid  X: This Week Health  LinkedIn: This Week Health  Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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 of the most AI-resilient roles in healthcare. Key Points: 01:07 CIO to CTDO Shift06:52 Data Ownership and Governance13:24 AI Transparency and Governance21:00 Careers and AI Future Keep up to date on the latest in health IT: https://thisweekhealth.com/news/ X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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, the takeaway is urgent: your patch program was built for a world that no longer exists. Continuous vulnerability discovery, identity security, network segmentation, and board-level conversations about AI-powered attack speed aren't future priorities — they're today's baseline. Remember, Stay a Little Paranoid  X: This Week Health  LinkedIn: This Week Health  Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer 

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 the tools you already own may be the most important security move you can make. Key Points: 04:03 Honest Broker Gap09:27 Risk Over Green Matrix12:02 Wrap Up and Contact Keep up to date on the latest in health IT: https://thisweekhealth.com/news/ X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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 planning actually demands in 2026. Stay a little paranoid. Key Points: 02:04 Iran Targets Tech Giants08:52 Resilience and Supply Chain12:27 CISO Storytelling and Contracts17:10 Cyber Reality and Wrap Up Keep up to date on the latest in health IT: https://thisweekhealth.com/news/ X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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 hospital goes analog, and why the best time to solve these problems is long before the headlines hit. Key Points: 01:58 HIMSS Buzz and Customer Voices08:16 Ransomware Goes Hollywood10:39 RSA Plans and Wrap Up X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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, Deloitte, Gartner, and Microsoft, Drex argues healthcare is quietly building a second workforce with none of the governance structures it took decades to build for the first one. Remember, Stay a Little Paranoid  X: This Week Health  LinkedIn: This Week Health  Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer 

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 Stryker Hack and Cyber Resilience19:21 AI and Healthcare Jobs29:38 Patient Experience Reimagined X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer=

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 attacks—it's matching the operational continuity of the people trying to break you. Stay a Little Paranoid X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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 Budget Math09:19 Resiliency and Cloud DR X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

 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 AI X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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, tactical conversation healthcare IT leaders won't want to miss. Key Points: 01:49 Speed vs Security05:20 Board Updates and Identity Proofing10:17 AI Reality Check18:57 Burnout and Identity Focus Golf Tournament Registration:  https://carahevents.carahsoft.com/Event/Details/686801-ThisWeekHealth X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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 Up X: This Week Health LinkedIn: This Week Health Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer

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 convinced to triple an opioid dose and reveal its own system prompts, and the picture gets clearer. Prompts are the new attack surface and the security model hasn't caught up yet.