Chad Barr

The second day was more intense than the first. While day one focused on understanding the problem, day two concentrated on practical actions and, in some instances, recognizing what cannot be ignored anymore. Guest Keynote: Creativity and Innovation for a Better Tomorrow – José Andrés Andrés opened by noting the obvious. “ I realized the world has to be in a very bad shape when you bring a…

Day one of the 2026 Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit covered a lot of ground. I was only able to attend six of the many sessions. A few that should make every security leader uncomfortable in exactly the right way.  This article summarizes what I took away, along with some key points. Leadership Vision for 2026: Cybersecurity — Fadeen Davis Fadeen Davis opened with a number that should…

Healthcare compliance used to be a game of “good enough.” Not anymore. The HIPAA Security Rule update for 2026 doesn’t just tweak the old playbook; it throws out the parts that let organizations skate by. It delivers a set of cybersecurity requirements that lands with the subtlety of a brick through a window. Every healthcare organization, from sprawling hospital systems to the two-person clinic…

Artificial intelligence is surrounded by a perfect storm of excitement, investment, and transformative potential. From automating complex workflows to powering generative AI assistants, the promise is undeniable. But as organizations rush to deploy AI, a gap is widening between the hype of the lab and the harsh realities of the real world. When models leave the controlled environment of…

AI isn’t just a new tool in cybersecurity. It’s the reason defenders are still in the fight. The old playbook is out. The new one is written by algorithms that don’t sleep, don’t blink, and don’t care about weekends. Understanding the Role of AI in Cybersecurity Rule-based security had a good run. Then attackers got faster, attacks got weirder, and the rules stopped working. Machine learning…

The Rules Fell Behind the Machines AI agents used to be glorified autocomplete. Now they pull patient records, move money, and negotiate contracts. The shift from text generators to autonomous actors happened while most companies were still figuring out how to spell “GPT.” The result? Tools that move faster than the rules. AIUC-1 is the first serious attempt to close that gap, and it’s not just…

Your data policy has a gap in it. A big one. And your IT team probably doesn’t know it exists. Employees are copying contracts, financial models, customer data, and internal strategy docs into free AI tools. Not because they’re careless. Because the tools are genuinely useful and nobody told them not to. By the time your security team finds out, that data has already been processed by a model…

The insurance industry holds vast amounts of sensitive personal and financial data, making it a lucrative target for cybercriminals. The nature of insurance companies ‘ databases, from personally identifiable information (PII) to credit card details and medical records, makes them particularly vulnerable. Cyberattacks on insurance firms have increased in frequency and severity, often leading to…

I sat on a panel at SecureWorld Boston this week called “The Human Layer: Insider Risk, Social Engineering & Behavioral Analytics.” The questions were sharp, the audience was engaged, and a few of the conversations stuck with me enough that I wanted to put them down here in longer form. We’re Measuring the Wrong Thing The panel opened with a big question: Are we losing the war on social…

The New Compliance Curveball: Scanning the “Cardless” Merchant Picture this: a small online shop, never storing or seeing a customer’s credit card number, relying entirely on a trusted payment processor. For years, these merchants, classified as SAQ A, enjoyed the lightest compliance load. No card data on their servers, no heavy security checklist. Suddenly, PCI DSS v4.x lands, and with it, a…

I’ll be honest with you. When I first started paying close attention to the AI conversation years ago, I thought the big risks were things like chatbots giving wrong homework answers or a spam filter being a little too aggressive. Cute, manageable problems. Then I actually started reading the research. And wow, did I underestimate how deep this rabbit hole goes. What I found wasn’t panic-worthy…

You’re scrolling through a streaming service, and it recommends a bizarre movie that seems completely random. Or maybe you apply for a new credit card and receive an instant, unexplained denial. We’ve all experienced the strange and opaque decisions made by AI systems. While a weird movie suggestion is harmless, the same opaque logic is now used to make life-altering decisions about loans, jobs,…

Broken promises. Leaked memos. A patchwork of laws: no, let’s call it what it is: a slow-motion car crash. While corporate brochures keep shouting that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is just around the corner, the reality on the ground feels more like a fever dream involving 50 different state legislatures and a very angry White House. Is the intelligence actually getting better, or are we…

The Game Has Changed For many businesses, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance is a familiar, if sometimes tedious, annual hurdle. It’s a cycle of preparation, assessment, and remediation that has become part of the operational calendar. But with the full enforcement of version 4.0.1, this “business-as-usual” mindset has become a significant risk. The new standard…

The world of artificial intelligence is saturated with hype. Every week brings breathless announcements of new models, new capabilities, and new existential threats. But beneath this constant noise, 2025 marked a year of profound, often surprising, shifts in how AI is developing and integrating into our world. This article cuts through the clamor to reveal five of the most genuinely…

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally transformed the way we work, ushering in a new era of remote and hybrid work environments. While this shift has brought numerous benefits, such as increased flexibility and improved work-life balance, it has also introduced myriad security challenges that organizations must address. As the future of work continues to evolve, it is crucial for businesses to…

The increasingly complex threat landscape emphasizes the importance of data-driven methods in cybersecurity. Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are responsible for protecting organizational assets and proving the effectiveness of their cybersecurity strategies to stakeholders. One of the most effective ways to do this is by using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This blog post will…