Reimagining Cyber - real world perspectives on cybersecurity · Reimagining Cyber

Fighting the Water Hackers - #193

March 18, 2026·26 min·2 clips

From Reimagining Cyber: What if targets are water systems, hospitals, and infrastructure that keeps ligh...

Rob Borrego starts with the familiar picture of cyber as stolen data, leaked emails, or ransomware payments. He then widens the frame to what happens when the target is a system people depend on to live normally. The episode keeps coming back to water, hospitals, and the infrastructure that keeps the lights on. Josh Korman joins as a cybersecurity strategist and founder of I Am the Cavalry. His work focuses on the safety and security of physical cyber systems, where software and connected devices directly affect human life. Korman argues that the industry still thinks too narrowly about cyber risk, and that narrow view hides the operational stakes when attacks move from screens into the physical world. Rob and Josh use the Stryker attack to make that point concrete. The worry is less the breach itself than what it may signal about the next wave of cyber conflict. Korman makes the case for preparing critical infrastructure before disruption arrives. Water systems and hospitals are the examples he keeps returning to. He also points to Undisruptable 27 at the Institute for Security Technology. The project is meant to strengthen critical infrastructure such as water systems and hospitals before potential large-scale cyber disruption can hit them. The conversation keeps translating technical risk into practical consequences. It asks what the problem means for operators, communities, and employers. It also pushes past abstract fear and toward planning. The episode treats resilience as a business and public safety issue, not a slogan. Korman's warnings come from more than a decade of work, not a passing headline cycle. The closing advice turns to a more personal form of readiness. Listeners are urged to look carefully at their insurance policies. The point is that many people may not be covered for the kind of loss this scenario could produce.

As heard by us

A sober look at cyber risk once it reaches water, hospitals, and other essential systems.

Reimagining Cyber moves past the usual stolen-data and ransomware framing and asks a harder question: what happens when attacks touch water systems, hospitals, and the infrastructure people rely on every day.

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Why you'd press play

Why water systems, hospitals, and other life-safety infrastructure are becoming the next front line in cyber conflict.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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