AI Security Brief

In traditional IT, isolating a compromised endpoint can stop an attack. In operational technology (OT) environments, that same action could disrupt control of a pipeline, cause a rupture, or trigger environmental damage. That’s why adopting AI in critical infrastructure requires a fundamentally different security approach. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience across energy, pipelines, aerospace, and defense, Jason Cradit, CTO and CISO at Everline, explains how security leaders can move beyond blanket restrictions and establish practical AI governance and guardrails. You’ll learn: Why “no AI” policies can fuel shadow AI instead of preventing it How security leaders can chart a path toward secure, responsible AI adoption How to build effective AI guardrails around real business and operational use cases Why stick around: Discover how to move beyond a “no AI” mandate and harness AI’s value without compromising the safety and availability of critical infrastructure. Episode resources: The AI Security Playbook for Industrial and Energy Are you ready for NERC CIP-015? Jason Cradit on LinkedIn Dustin Childs on LinkedIn ⁠Johnny Hand on LinkedIn TrendAI on LinkedIn About AI Security Brief AI Security Brief is where security and technology leaders come to get ahead. Join us for real conversations on the AI trends, threats, and decisions that can't wait. About TrendAI™ TrendAI™ empowers organizations to lead the future of AI with proactive security designed to inspire innovation and eliminate risk. TrendAI™. AI Fearlessly.

There's no silver bullet when it comes to AI security strategy, and treating one model, tool, or vendor as the answer can limit an organization’s ability to adapt. Morgan Adamski, who leads PwC’s Cyber, Data & Technology Risk practice, joins us to tackle two pressing questions: How should organizations choose between closed frontier models and open-weight alternatives? And how can they build a multi-model architecture flexible enough to keep pace as AI technology rapidly evolves? Drawing on her work with boards, CISOs, and security teams, Morgan cuts through the “paralysis by analysis” surrounding these questions and offers security leaders a practical path forward. You'll learn: Why the choice between closed and open-weight models isn’t binary How a multi-model architecture can improve agility, cost efficiency, and resilience Why data structure and data readiness for AI are critical before bolting AI onto a “Frankenstein” architecture Why mastering enterprise security fundamentals for AI is the highest-leverage move your team can make. Why stick around: Morgan shares clear guidance for making confident AI model decisions while preserving model-use flexibility, strengthening security, and helping your organization keep pace with rapid innovation. Episode resources: Morgan Adamski on LinkedIn Frontier AI: The future of AI-driven cybersecurity When every weakness is visible: Leadership in the age of AI-exposed risk Related episode: Who governs your AI agents? Dustin Childs on LinkedIn ⁠Johnny Hand on LinkedIn TrendAI on LinkedIn About AI Security Brief AI Security Brief is where security and technology leaders come to get ahead. Join us for real conversations on the AI trends, threats, and decisions that can't wait. About TrendAI™ TrendAI™ empowers organizations to lead the future of AI with proactive security designed to inspire innovation and eliminate risk. TrendAI™. AI Fearlessly.

Is your organization truly AI native, or did you just bolt AI onto existing infrastructure? Your answer could be an indicator to how much risk you’re carrying without realizing it. Zach Evans, Chief Technology Officer at Xsolis, has a simple test for telling the difference: strip out the AI and see if your process still works. If it does, you may be exposing your organization to security blind spots and workflows that quietly erode organizational knowledge and skills. Zach joins Johnny Hand and Dustin Childs to unpack what it actually takes to build an AI-native organization, and why the stakes of getting agentic AI wrong can be unforgiving for every organization, not just those in healthcare. You’ll learn: What makes an organization truly AI-native and why it matters How to design security, redundancy, and access controls into AI workflows from the start Why you should onboard AI agents like a new hire How to assess MCP servers as third-party vendors Why both technical redundancy and having people who can still perform critical work manually can’t be an afterthought Why stick around: Zach turns lessons from real hospital downtime into a practical mandate for every security leader: plan for when the agent fails, not only for when it works. Episode resources: Zach Evans on LinkedIn Learn more about Xsolis From Predictive to Generative to Agentic AI: Understanding Healthcare’s Next Evolution The Cybercriminal Underground: Mapping the Healthcare Data Economy Hunt Them All: An AI-Powered Vulnerability Sweep of 19,000 MCP Servers Dustin Childs on LinkedIn ⁠Johnny Hand on LinkedIn TrendAI on LinkedIn About AI Security Brief AI Security Brief is where security and technology leaders come to get ahead. Join us for real conversations on the AI trends, threats, and decisions that can't wait. About TrendAI™ TrendAI™ empowers organizations to lead the future of AI with proactive security designed to inspire innovation and eliminate risk. TrendAI™. AI Fearlessly.

Attackers aren't just using AI to steal data; they're using it to fight back while you investigate them in real time. And once an adversary is inside, why would they ever want to leave? That's the unsettling reality Tom Kellermann, VP of AI Security and Threat Research at TrendAI, lays out in this episode. And the numbers prove it. According to a 2026 TrendAI survey of 46 financial-sector CISOs, more than 60% of respondents experienced counter-incident response, where adversaries actively disrupt live investigations. In addition, nearly 90% of these leaders reported more AI-enabled attacks year over year. Tom joins Johnny Hand and Dustin Childs to explain why the threats that hit the banks first tend to hit everyone else next, and what defenders can do about it. You'll learn: Why ungoverned AI should be treated as a command-and-control (C2) channel, and how attackers use it for reconnaissance, lateral movement, and persistence How agentic attacks work end-to-end, from jailbreaking LLMs through API attacks to dynamically spinning up C2s in minutes What tactics are used most for bank crime, from the rise of reverse business email compromise (RBEC), deepfake "employee digital twins," and the theft of non-public market information for digital front-running How a strategic leadership alignment can improve AI defense Why stick around: Tom lays out how defenders can turn AI against the attackers, and why a CISO's independent voice has never mattered more. Episode resources: Modern Bank Heists 2026 report Tom Kellermann on LinkedIn Dustin Childs on LinkedIn Johnny Hand on LinkedIn TrendAI on LinkedIn About AI Security Brief AI Security Brief is where security and technology leaders come to get ahead. Join us for real conversations on the AI trends, threats, and decisions that can’t wait. About TrendAI™ TrendAI™ empowers organizations to lead the future of AI with proactive security designed to inspire innovation and eliminate risk. TrendAI™. AI Fearlessly.

While AI might seem abstract, something that lives in "the cloud" is concrete. The AI applications we use every day run on GPUs in physical buildings, and Mark Houpt secures them. As Chief Information Security Officer at DataBank, he's watched those data centers go from anonymous warehouses to national security targets almost overnight. Mark joins hosts Johnny Hand and Dustin Childs to make the case that the AI era is, at its core, a physical security problem, and why the security fundamentals you already know still work, even when applied to threats that didn't exist two years ago. You'll learn: How GPU scarcity and government export controls turned ordinary data centers into national security targets How the data center threat map has evolved - from employee badge slip-ups to nation-states, “laptop farm” fraud, and foreign-backed activism Why compartmentalization is back at the center of the cybersecurity playbook, including the individual disk and the cage. Why stick around: Mark hands you a working checklist for securing AI at the physical layer: how it’s being targeted, who's coming for it, and what to do about it. Episode resources: The AI Security Playbook (for Tech, Media & Communications) DataBank website Mark Houpt on LinkedIn Dustin Childs on LinkedIn Johnny Hand on LinkedIn TrendAI on LinkedIn About AI Security Brief AI Security Brief is where security and technology leaders come to get ahead. Join us for real conversations on the AI trends, threats, and decisions that can't wait. About TrendAI™ TrendAI™ empowers organizations to lead the future of AI with proactive security designed to inspire innovation and eliminate risk. TrendAI™. AI Fearlessly.