Help Me With HIPAA

Ten years ago, we took a terrifying tour through the Cyber Scary Haunted House. Now, 507 episodes later, we're going back to see if anybody ever cleaned the place up. Spoiler alert: They didn't! The same old cybersecurity monsters are still lurking around, some have gotten even scarier, and AI has opened an entirely new wing of horrors. Join us for our annual Halloween episode as we revisit the ghosts of HIPAA past, meet some frightening new residents, and discuss what healthcare organizations can do to keep these monsters from haunting their patients.

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Ever wonder how a $5.9 million HIPAA penalty turns into just $140,000? No, it's not some clever investment strategy. It's HIPAA penalty math, and this case raises more questions than answers. What started as a patient simply trying to get a copy of their dental records uncovered missing records, questionable safeguards, nonexistent policies and procedures, and a whole lot of resistance to OCR's investigation. Even after a significant reduction in penalties, the bigger question remains: What happens when an organization would rather pay the fine than fix the problems? This week, we're breaking down the numbers, the failures, and the lessons every healthcare organization should take away from this enforcement case.

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What could nine seconds possibly do for your cybersecurity? Maybe more than you think! Cybersecurity doesn't start when you clock in at work. It starts at home, with the everyday decisions we make online. In this episode, we're celebrating Cybersecurity Awareness Month by exploring simple ways to build better security habits that protect our families, coworkers, and communities. From the Take 9 campaign and the power of a nine-second pause to free tools that help protect your digital life, we're sharing practical tips that remind us cybersecurity doesn't have to be complicated. There are a few laughs, some useful advice, and one very simple challenge: Pick something and do it! Because knowing what to do doesn't help much if you never actually do it.

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Cyber threats are moving at lightning speed, while regulations seem to be taking the scenic route. But what happens when the rules finally catch up? Will healthcare organizations be ready, or will they find themselves scrambling to meet expectations they should have been preparing for all along? In this episode, Donna and David dig into proposed HIPAA Security Rule changes and cybersecurity legislation being discussed in Congress. From minimum security standards and leadership accountability to proving that safeguards actually work, the message is becoming pretty clear: simply saying you're secure isn't enough. And while everyone waits to see which rules become reality, the threats aren't waiting around. It's time to ask whether you're truly protecting your organization and patients, or just hoping your IT provider has everything covered.

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Everybody wants AI to make things faster and easier. And it can. The problem starts when "AI is helping us" turns into "AI is doing it, so we stopped checking." This week, Donna and David talk about why keeping a human in the loop isn't enough if that human is just clicking "approve", how agentic AI changes the risk equation, and why organizations need real guardrails, governance, and accountability before turning AI loose. AI may be able to do a lot of the work, but that doesn't mean it should be the one making all the decisions.

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Small businesses are making progress on cybersecurity, and that's worth celebrating. But are they actually as prepared as they think they are? In this episode, Donna and David dig into the 2026 Small Business Cybersecurity Awareness and Practices Survey and the gap between confidence and readiness. From MFA and backups to incident response, testing, documentation, and the rapidly changing risks of AI, they discuss why putting security tools in place is only the beginning. Real security means knowing what's working, verifying it, and being able to prove it.

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There is no shortage of tools, scans, checklists, and reports that promise to help with cybersecurity, but calling something a risk analysis does not magically make it one. This episode takes a hard look at what OCR keeps saying about Security Risk Analysis, why incomplete SRAs continue to show up in enforcement actions, and why understanding your actual environment still matters more than simply checking the right boxes.

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Every October, the National Cybersecurity Alliance uses Cybersecurity Awareness Month to remind us how to stay safer online, and this year's message is beautifully simple: don't make it easy for the criminals. They're looking for weak passwords, missing MFA, unpatched software, and people who click before they think. In other words, they're rattling digital doorknobs to see which ones open. This episode takes a look at this year's campaign and the real-world cybercriminals being used to show why basic cyber hygiene still matters. You don't have to become a cybersecurity genius. You just need to practice a few basic security habits to keep you from becoming the easiest target on the block.

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Remember when spotting a phishing scam meant looking for terrible grammar, a suspicious link, and maybe a Nigerian prince having a bad week? Those were simpler times. Today's attackers can sound like your IT department, use tools you already trust, and even walk you through legitimate-looking security steps. The scams have gotten much better at looking trustworthy, which means the old security awareness rules need an upgrade. When urgency, anxiety, or pressure shows up, slowing down and verifying may be your best defense.

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There are two times to spend money on cybersecurity: before something goes wrong, when you still have choices, and after something goes wrong, when your choices have packed a bag and left town. With the average U.S. data breach now costing $11.5 million, the question isn't whether security costs money. It's whether you're spending that money on the things most likely to keep a bad day from becoming a very long, very expensive year. The latest breach-cost research offers some surprisingly practical clues, including faster detection, smarter access controls, employee training, encryption, simpler systems, qualified security help, and properly managed AI. And there's an important catch: outsourcing the work doesn't outsource the accountability. This episode digs into how to spend smarter while you still have the luxury of deciding where the money goes.

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