In this episode of the Distilled Security Podcast, we tackle four topics shaping the cybersecurity landscape — from AI's real impact on defense to a wave of regulatory and market changes every security team needs to be tracking.

🔹 Is AI Good for Security? — Anthropic's model finding hundreds of zero days, stock market panic after Claude Code's launch (CrowdStrike down 11%), the "hard things easy, easy things hard" reality of AI, why human-out-of-the-loop isn't ready yet, the coming spike in vulnerability disclosures, and how defenders should be using AI for better hygiene

🔹 CIRCIA Final Rule (May 2026) — The federal incident reporting law hitting critical infrastructure, 72-hour incident and 24-hour ransom payment notification clocks, how "substantial cyber incident" triggers differ from materiality, mid-market companies falling in scope, overlapping timelines with HIPAA/SEC/state breach laws, and building your incident response playbook now

🔹 Protecting Yourself Against a Changing Compliance Landscape — CMMC Phase 2, HIPAA overhaul, CCPA audits all converging, why a unified security program beats framework-by-framework chasing, evidence over policy in audits, engineering continuous compliance through automation, and the reality of doing this without dedicated staff

🔹 Cybersecurity M&A / Consolidation Problem — Google acquiring Wiz for $32B, 10% of the cybersecurity industry changing hands, operational benefits of fewer vendors vs. pricing pressure and talent drain, the OneTrust "sticker on the side" integration warning, Cisco's Startup Studios model, and why consolidation only works if they don't break what made the acquisition special

🥃 Spirit Review: WhistlePig 12 Year Old World Rye

PA Fine Wine & Good Spirits Select — Finished in Madeira, Sauternes & Port barrels, 86 proof

https://www.whistlepigwhiskey.com/

📬 Send Us Your Questions!

ask@distilledsecuritypodcast.com

🎙️ Hosts

Justin Leapline – @justinleapline

Joe Wynn – @wynnjoe

Rick Yocum – @rickyocum

🌐 Connect with Us

Website: distilledsecuritypodcast.com

X: @DisSecPod

Email: hello@distilledsecuritypodcast.com

👍 Like, comment, and subscribe for weekly security and compliance insights.

In this episode of the Distilled Security Podcast, we break down three converging forces reshaping how organizations manage AI risk — and what you need to do about it now.

🔹 BIPA + AI Notetakers — A class action lawsuit exposes unauthorized biometric data collection, why a single Illinois meeting participant creates liability, the Shopify wiretapping dismissal, and the steps you should take today to audit your AI tools
🔹 GRC Engineering Meets AI — Real AI compliance tools vs. vaporware, using LLMs for policy drafting and control mapping, the hallucination accountability problem, building AI guardrails as code, and the NIST RFI on AI Agent Security (comments due March 9, 2026)
🔹 ISO 42001 Deep Dive — The first AI Management System standard, how it differs from ISO 27001, AI Impact Assessments vs. traditional risk assessments, stakeholder engagement requirements, and why certification is becoming essential for EU AI Act compliance

🥃 Spirit Review: Redbreast 12 Cask Strength
https://www.redbreastwhiskey.com/en-us/whiskey-collections/redbreast-cask-strength-whiskey/

⏱️ Timestamps

0:00 Intro & Episode Overview
2:04 BIPA & AI Notetakers
25:08 GRC Engineering Meets AI
1:07:15 🥃 Spirit Review: Redbreast 12 Cask Strength (Irish Whiskey)
1:11:17 ISO 42001
1:49:30 Outro & wrap-up

🎙️ Hosts
Justin Leapline – @justinleapline
Joe Wynn – @wynnjoe
Rick Yocum – @rickyocum

🌐 Connect with Us
Website: distilledsecuritypodcast.com
X: @DisSecPod
Email: hello@distilledsecuritypodcast.com

👍 Like, comment, and subscribe for weekly security and compliance insights.

In the first episode of 2026, the Distilled Security team kicks off the year with a practical discussion on security priorities, key compliance dates to watch in 2026, and why misleading the government on cybersecurity compliance can have serious consequences.

The conversation focuses on simplifying security programs, returning to core fundamentals, and learning from real-world enforcement and regulatory cases. The episode closes with a holiday pour and a preview of format changes coming next.

⏱️ Timestamps

• 0:00 Intro & episode overview
• 0:33 2026 security resolutions: simplify & back to basics
• 5:45 “Science projects”: removing emotion from decisions
• 8:36 Justin’s goals: family, travel, business & AI workflows
• 17:52 EOS + Atomic Habits workbook (goal planning)
• 23:54 Key compliance dates to watch in 2026
• 31:45 California privacy updates & risk assessments (CCPA)
• 35:39 EU AI Act + NIS2 enforcement ramp-up
• 42:48 Drink break: High West “A Midwinter Night’s Dram.”
• 45:04 Don’t mislead the feds: FedRAMP, SolarWinds, CMMC—wrap-up to 1:20:12

🎙️ Hosts

• Justin Leapline – @justinleapline
• Joe Wynn – @wynnjoe
• Rick Yocum – @rickyocum

🌐 Connect with Us

• Website: distilledsecuritypodcast.com
• X: @DisSecPod
• Email: hello@distilledsecuritypodcast.com

🥃 Drink of the episode: High West A Midwinter Night’s Dram