Podcasts about Beazley

This week we talk about AI agents, cyberattacks, and insurance claims.We also discuss OpenAI, Hugging Face, and policy language.Recommended Book: The Stars My Destination by Alfred BesterTranscriptTwo broad categories of cyberattack have become especially visible this year, and only one of them requires a human attacker in the loop to choose the target.In March, hackers linked by the US government to Iranian intelligence broke into the medical-device manufacturer Stryker and remotely wiped tens of thousands of employee devices. The attack disrupted the company for days, affected its first-quarter earnings, and represented a shift from somewhat more subtle espionage toward more overt and deliberate destruction.Elsewhere, the market-research company Klue sat at the center of a breach affecting close to 200 customers. Attackers used an old credential to gain access to keys for customers' cloud services.These incidents had people with recognizable motives behind them, and that sort of hack has become increasingly rare over the past decade or so: Black Kite counted 7,551 publicly disclosed ransomware victims over its latest twelve-month reporting period, alone, about 25 percent more than the year before.Then, over the course of about five weeks this summer, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta each disclosed incidents in which their AI models gained access to real computer systems they were not supposed to touch.The incidents were not identical, and describing all of them as escapes wouldn't capture the important nuance of the situation.Anthropic and Meta said their models reached the internet because a third-party evaluation environment had been misconfigured. The models had been told they were operating inside a simulation, and their internal dialogues indicate they interpreted the real systems they encountered when they left that environment as simulated components of that exercise.OpenAI's incident, however, was a bit different.Its models were being tested using ExploitGym, a benchmark intended to measure their ability to find and exploit software vulnerabilities. Internet access was supposed to be blocked, but the models discovered and exploited vulnerabilities in a package-registry service inside OpenAI's research infrastructure, found a route to the open internet, and, as I related in a previous episode, eventually compromised the production systems of the AI platform Hugging Face.Since that episode, OpenAI has release a more complete postmortem, which they published in August, and which says the activity was primarily driven by an internal research model comparable in scale to GPT-5.6 Sol, though Sol participated in parts of the incident.The agents created an improvised message board inside the package manager, exchanged discoveries, divided up work, and sometimes described themselves as a swarm.At Hugging Face they executed code on dozens of servers, obtained broad access to several clusters, and exposed credentials associated with databases, cloud services, code repositories, and internal communications.Hugging Face reconstructed around 17,600 actions over a campaign lasting about four and a half days, including roughly two and a half days inside its own infrastructure.Notably, these AI agents were not trying to steal money or damage Hugging Face. They inferred that the company might possess the solutions to the benchmark, to the problem they were tasked with solving, and they went looking for them. They were, in effect, cheating on a test, looking for solutions to the problems rather than taking the test, as intended.That doesn't mean the models had motives in the human sense. People created the evaluation, reduced the normal safeguards, and assigned an offensive task. But no operator selected Hugging Face or directed the individual steps; that was a path the AI decided to take all by itself.Anthropic's review subsequently found three incidents among more than 141,000 evaluation runs for its own models. In one, a model unable to reach its fictional target scanned around 9,000 real ones, compromised an internet-facing application using an exposed password and SQL injection, then stopped after recognizing that the host was real.Another model published a malicious package to the real Python Package Index because it believed the registry was simulated. Fifteen outside systems downloaded and ran that malicious package before it was removed.Meta then disclosed that one of its models had reached the internet through a misconfiguration at the same evaluation vendor and exploited a vulnerability at an unnamed third party.No significant financial damages have been publicly reported from these events, by attacker or victim. But if there had been damages, who would have paid for them?What I'd like to talk about today is how autonomous AI systems complicate cyber insurance, how insurers have handled equally unfamiliar risks in the past, and why insurance contracts may soon become one of the more important forms of AI governance.—A typical cyber-insurance policy covers a broad portfolio of costs.These can include ransom payments, forensic investigations, legal expenses, restoring systems and data, notifying customers, and compensating victims and possibly a victims' customers for the revenue lost while a company's operations are interrupted.Business interruption is often one of the largest portions of a claim, and policies can respond to malicious attacks as well as non-malicious failures.This market grew by more than 30% a year between 2017 and 2022, as ransomware, a type of attack that became a lot more common during that period, in part because of increased automation and a franchising model that became really popular and increased the reach of the most powerful ransomware tools, almost broke this industry.In 2021, attacks on Colonial Pipeline, the insurer CNA, and meat processor JBS produced multimillion-dollar ransom payments and costly disruptions. Insurance prices surged, sometimes by more than 100%, while some companies found they could not obtain coverage because insurers just couldn't make the numbers work for them.Insurers responded to this more complex hacking environment by raising prices, but they also made coverage conditional on specific defenses. Companies increasingly had to demonstrate that they used multifactor authentication, endpoint monitoring, restricted administrator access, and backups that attackers could not alter, as a baseline.Loss ratios then fell, more insurance capital entered the market, and prices eventually came down again, stabilizing after that frantic and uncertain period.According to Marsh, global cyber-insurance rates fell 4% in the second quarter of 2026, the twelfth consecutive quarterly decline. Primary pricing is now about 42% below its 2022 peak.The market is not necessarily becoming safer, though. US cyber premiums reached about $7.5 billion in 2025, while the share of premiums consumed by claims rose to 53%—the first time it ticked above 50% since the pandemic-era ransomware surge.Globally, Munich Re estimates the market was worth nearly $15 billion last year and could approach $28 billion by 2030.During this period, insurance applications have also become a consequential part of a company's security system.In one particularly clear example, Travelers rescinded a million-dollar policy after a ransomware claim revealed that the customer's multifactor authentication protected only its firewall, despite application answers saying the control was used much more broadly.Companies that don't live up to cyber insurance expectations can thus be left in the lurch, so in a very real way, insurers have helped make multifactor authentication a standard business practice by attaching a price to its absence. This industry could move faster than regulators because they didn't have to ban insecure behavior and pass legislation to make that happen; they just had to decline to insure anyone who didn't live up to their basic security standards, which left those who failed to implement such precautions without insurance, should they be targeted by hackers.That same mechanism is now being aimed at AI agents, but the big initial problem everyone is facing is definitional.Most cyber policies are written around some identifiable security event: an outside attacker breaks in, an employee steals information, a credential is used without authorization, or malicious software takes a server offline.What if, though, a company gives an AI agent access to its network so that the agent can find and repair security vulnerabilities?And then maybe the agent discovers a vulnerability, exploits it, moves laterally into systems it was not expected to touch, and exposes sensitive data. There is a cyber loss, but there may be no conventional attacker and no stolen credential. The software was invited in and may have used permissions it was explicitly given. This is very different from a human-led hack, but it still has the potential to cause a lot of monetary damage.Insurers including MSIG, QBE, and Beazley are reviewing how their policy language applies to these scenarios and who bears responsibility when an agent's autonomous actions cause damage.For now, most of them are clarifying the parameters of their coverage rather than excluding AI events entirely.QBE's global head of cyber described AI as “a risk amplifier, not a fundamentally new cyber risk.” In other words, if an AI system causes something that looks like an ordinary covered breach, the involvement of AI probably won't put it in a different category; it'll still be covered.The trickier cases involve an agent that works as designed but makes an expensive decision, or a systemic event in which a model or AI platform produces losses at many companies simultaneously.The first type might be treated as professional liability, or errors and omissions, rather than a cyber incident. The second could, in theory at least, end up being too large for insurers to cover without strict limits in place.Specialized products are already emerging. Armilla AI, Munich Re, and AXA XL sell coverage for risks including model underperformance, hallucinations, and intellectual-property claims. Whether these products remain separate or are eventually folded into broad cyber policies will depend in part on what sorts of claims insurers actually receive, and the scale of those claims.Right now, they have very little historical data with which to calculate the price. Insurance is fundamentally a system for using past experience to account for future issues, and autonomous AI losses have almost no past; they're a very new type of problem.That said, the insurance industry has encountered ambiguity before.For years, insurers worried about silent cyber: losses caused by digital events that appeared inside property, liability, and other policies that had never explicitly contemplated them. Lloyd's gradually required policies to state whether cyber risks were covered or excluded.There was also the question of attribution. In 2017, the NotPetya malware spread from Ukraine through corporate networks around the world. The US and several allies attributed it to the Russian military, but many victims were ordinary companies with no meaningful role in geopolitics.Drugmaker Merck claimed about $1.4 billion in damages under its property policies. Insurers disputed roughly half of that amount using exclusions for hostile or warlike acts; language whose ancestry predates computers by more than a century.New Jersey courts found that the exclusion required something closer to conventional military action, not a cyber bug gone haywire, and the case settled in January of 2024, just before the state Supreme Court was scheduled to hear it. Mondelez settled a parallel dispute with Zurich over a claim exceeding $100 million around the same time.Lloyd's subsequently required standalone cyber policies to address catastrophic state-backed attacks explicitly, including a method for resolving attribution. Agentic AI reopens both the silent-coverage and attribution problems simultaneously.If a model causes a loss, responsibility might plausibly be assigned to the model developer, the company that deployed it, the vendor that built its evaluation environment, or the organization whose excessive permissions allowed the damage to spread.In two of this summer's three sets of incidents, a third-party evaluator's misconfiguration helped create the path to the internet. In OpenAI's case, the path involved vulnerabilities in OpenAI's own infrastructure and then weaknesses at several outside services.The most important insurance risk, though, may ultimately be technological and infrastructural aggregation.The 2024 CrowdStrike outage demonstrated that a single faulty software update could interrupt airlines, banks, hospitals, and other organizations around the world without any malicious attacker.Consider a future in which thousands of companies give access to agents built on a small number of frontier models. A flaw or unwanted behavior in one widely used model could cause problems for a large portion of an insurer's entire customer base, all at once.And this risk is arriving in the midst of an unusually competitive insurance market, after twelve quarters of declining rates and as loss ratios are beginning to rise. If insurers decide they cannot price the exposure, they will probably respond through some combination of higher prices, lower limits, stricter conditions, and exclusions.All that in mind, the first thing to be watching in the coming months is policy language during the January 2027 renewal season.The current posture, if you recall, is to clarify rather than exclude, but language addressing systemic AI events or dependence on a single model provider is already being discussed. A significant loss could change the market's posture quickly, making it more limited and expensive.The second thing to watch for is the first big, disputed claim.Industry interviews can describe what insurers expect to cover, but their operational position will be established when an AI agent causes an eight-figure loss and a carrier must either pay or explain why it won't.The NotPetya disputes took years to resolve, and the first autonomous-agent case could similarly define policy language well before it produces a final court ruling. That'll be a moment that maybe defines the next ten years of cyber insurance standards, if not longer.The third thing to watch for is changes to insurance questionnaires.Underwriters could begin asking whether agent credentials are narrowly scoped, whether actions are comprehensively logged, whether consequential decisions require human approval, whether agents have kill switches, and whether claimed containment has been verified rather than merely documented.If these controls affect the price and availability of insurance, they could become industry standards faster than legislation makes them mandatory, just like that previous round of cyber insurance baselines that became common because, lacking them, customers could no longer get cyber insurance at any price.And finally, there's also a government process developing alongside the private one.An executive order signed in June established a voluntary framework under which developers can provide the federal government with access to certain frontier models for up to 30 days before release. The process uses classified benchmarks to evaluate advanced cyber capabilities, and representatives from major AI companies discussed the framework at the White House in August of 2026.If insurers eventually require evidence that a model or company participated in this sort of evaluation, a voluntary government program could evolve into a practical requirement without ever becoming an actual legal mandate.This wouldn't make insurance a perfect regulator. Insurers are accountable to their own balance sheets, not to the public as a whole, and they may respond to poorly understood risks by excluding them rather than making them safer, as has been the case with some types of weather disaster in areas that are becoming more prone to things like flooding and wildfires.But insurance companies do have to convert uncertainty into prices, contractual language, and technical requirements, which makes some currently difficult to quantify things more quantifiable, at least monetarily.The AI incidents this summer caused no reported material damage, which is one reason they're getting relatively little coverage, despite being fairly meaningful events. The insurance industry sees these sorts of narratives through the lens of cost and risk, though, and this is a category of loss with no conventional attacker, no stolen credential, several plausible defendants, and almost no claims history, arriving at a moment in which companies are racing to give autonomous systems more access to all of their systems—a lot of valuable and potentially vulnerable infrastructure.The people whose job is to price that risk haven't decided what it costs, yet. And until they do, what they add to or remove from their application forms may be more consequential to the norms and expectations in this space than what the government mandates, on the matter.Show Noteshttps://www.businessinsurance.com/as-ai-agents-go-rogue-cyber-insurers-are-adapting-their-policies/https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/as-ai-agents-go-rogue-cyber-insurers-are-adapting-their-policies-4878768https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/https://huggingface.co/blog/security-incident-july-2026https://huggingface.co/blog/agent-intrusion-technical-timelinehttps://www.anthropic.com/news/investigating-incidents-cybersecurity-evalshttps://cyberunit.com/insights/ai-sandbox-escapes-three-labs-meta-anthropic-openai/https://labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/csa-research-note-frontier-ai-models-hacking-real-systems-ev/https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/07/the-worst-hacks-and-breaches-of-2026-so-far/https://blackkite.com/reports/2026-ransomware-reporthttps://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-320ahttps://www.munichre.com/en/insights/cyber/cyber-insurance-risks-and-trends-2026.htmlhttps://www.swissre.com/risk-knowledge/advancing-societal-benefits-digitalisation/about-cyber-insurance-market.htmlhttps://www.marsh.com/en-gb/services/international-placement-services/insights/global-insurance-market-index.htmlhttps://compyl.com/guides/cyber-insurance-readiness-guide/https://www.aon.com/en/insights/articles/cyber-and-tech-e-and-o-market-reporthttps://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/merck-settlement-notpetya-insurance/703922/https://therecord.media/mondelez-and-zurich-reach-settlement-in-notpetya-cyberattack-insurance-suithttps://assets.lloyds.com/media/eb6de9ce-293b-4213-80f8-9dc69c45b1a9/Y5381%20Market%20Bulletin%20-%20Cyber-attack%20exclusions.pdfhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/eo-14409.pdfhttps://www.axios.com/2026/08/04/inside-trump-ai-framework This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

It is MLB Trade Deadline day 2026. The Pirates haven't done anything today. Will that change? The guys ran down the other moves made around Major League Baseball today. After dropping 3 of 4 in Cincy, does it make sense for the Pirates to still go for it? Will they try to buy & sell? Another trade has come in and the Pirates are not involved. Pirates reporter Colin Beazley from the PG joined the show. Colin said it is still a wait & see game from the Pirates on trade deadline day. Will Ben Cherington get aggressive as we approach the 6 pm deadline? One of the only big names left out there in the reliever market is Luke Weaver. Colin said we will find out how much the front office believes in this team by 6. Was Hunter Goodman really thrown around as a name the Pirates were interested in? What could be the hold up with the Pirates making a move? Should Cherington be working today like his job is on the line? The Pirates should be pushing for another starter if there are innings limits within the rotation. Colin still thinks the Pirates make 2 moves before the 6 pm deadline.

Colin Beazley from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comes on The Fan Hotline to discuss the latest developments involving the Pirates with Adam Crowley.

Pirates reporter Colin Beazley from the PG joined the show. Colin confirms that the Pirates want to add players at the deadline that will help them win games this year. Colin also says that he has had multiple people come to him and say they would love to have Mason Miller, but he highly doubts the Pirates actually make a move for him. Colin is not sure that the Pirates will actually get an opportunity to trade Marcell Ozuna.

How should Ben Cherington approach the trade deadline? He said yesterday that you should do everything in your power to win games if you have the chance to compete. This leads the listener to believe that Pirates will be heavy buyers at the trade deadline. Mullsy believes that this quote from Ben Cherington is a straight up statement of his intentions for this trade deadline. Donny Football Debrief – It has truly been a very wacky last week around the NFL. Pirates reporter Colin Beazley from the PG joined the show. Colin confirms that the Pirates want to add players at the deadline that will help them win games this year. Colin also says that he has had multiple people come to him and say they would love to have Mason Miller, but he highly doubts the Pirates actually make a move for him. Colin is not sure that the Pirates will actually get an opportunity to trade Marcell Ozuna.

Colin Beazley joins to give his thoughts on the game-ending replay challenge, the decision to pull Chandler, who the internal bullpen options are, how much longer Ozuna be on the roster, if the Pirates should extend Valdez soon and his great approach, Jacob Gonzalez's future role, Brandon Lowe's struggles, is Oneil Cruz could be moved, who Colin would be willing to trade. 

The Pirates got two great starts on Wednesday, but the bullpen faltered once more. Chandler had one of his best starts ever. DK made a horrible decision. A caller gives his take. Colin Beazley joins to give his thoughts on the game-ending replay challenge, the decision to pull Chandler, who the internal bullpen options are, how much longer Ozuna be on the roster, if the Pirates should extend Valdez soon and his great approach, Jacob Gonzalez's future role, Brandon Lowe's struggles, is Oneil Cruz could be moved, who Colin would be willing to trade. 

Pirates reporter Colin Beazley from the PG joined the show. Colin labeled Esmerlyn Valdez as ‘untouchable' ahead of the trade deadline and said he wouldn't part with really anyone on the Major League roster right now. Colin mentioned that a Mason Miller trade would likely include a big-money player from the Padres that they are looking to move in order to free up money. How can the Pirates add to the roster without adding much in terms of payroll? Colin's guess is that Luke Weaver will be the Pirates main target at the trade deadline. Colin thinks the next 2 weeks could be the final days of Dennis Santana in a Pirates uniform.

The Pirates took 2 of 3 over the weekend in Cleveland. Saturday night left a sour taste after the Pirates blew another game, but the response on Sunday may have fixed all of that for people. The Buccos are tied for a playoff spot entering play today. What were the highlights from this series? Poni bragged about his harness race victory on Saturday. Yesterday will be remembered as the Billy Cook game. Which team from the National League is the biggest threat to the Pirates in the wild card race? Pirates reporter Colin Beazley from the PG joined the show. Colin labeled Esmerlyn Valdez as ‘untouchable' ahead of the trade deadline and said he wouldn't part with really anyone on the Major League roster right now. Colin mentioned that a Mason Miller trade would likely include a big-money player from the Padres that they are looking to move in order to free up money. How can the Pirates add to the roster without adding much in terms of payroll? Colin's guess is that Luke Weaver will be the Pirates main target at the trade deadline. Colin thinks the next 2 weeks could be the final days of Dennis Santana in a Pirates uniform.

AM Best Senior Associate Editor Steve Hallo discusses his BestWire reporting showing the 2025 rankings of U.S. standalone cyber insurers, highlighting Chubb's rise to the top spot, Beazley's dramatic climb, and continued growth in the cyber insurance market.

Send us Fan MailA report by Zenodo suggests more than 20,000 people have died during the June European heatwave, and youth suicides are reaching alarming numbers too. As a new heat dome settles across the Eastern US, Europe is preparing for its next heatwave, however, the real alarm is happening under the oceans. The EU's Copernicus Marine Service said the oceans are experiencing record global sea surface temperatures of 21°C, beating previous records set in 2023 and 2024. A lot else has been going on, from Trump accused of “brazen crypto corruption” with $1 billion earned in his first year back in the White House, to Alex Carp, the CEO of Palantir, suffering a “bit of a meltdown” during a live interview, and then we had a very strange interview with Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former Facebook executive turned whistleblower and author of the book, Careless People. The devastation in Venezuela became a lot more apparent this week, we saw reports suggesting there are 60,000 far right extremists in Germany, the media site Canary has been debanked, and the US Supreme Court has been issuing new rulings. All that and more will be covered, but before we get onto the world news, it's time to talk cybersecurity insurance. To cover this fascinating topic, we are delighted to welcome Alessandro Lezzi, who will be joining us for the first hour. Alessandro is Group Head of Cyber Risks at Beazley, where he is responsible for the company's global cyber risk initiatives, driving efforts to address the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape and ensuring the delivery of full spectrum cyber risk propositions to clients worldwide. We are going to discuss the cybersecurity insurance landscape, the risks of AI and quantum computing, digital infrastructure insurance, datacentre resilience, and what it all means to us, and a whole lot more. Don't miss out as we get under the covers of UK politics and world news. We'll be going live Friday, 3rd July 2026, kicking off at 8am UK, 9am EU, 11am UAE, 12.30pm IN, 2pm TH, 3pm SG, 5pm AEST. Streaming across various locations, and no doubt about it, we'd love your support. The Sh*t Show is a Livestream happening every Friday, where Andrea T Edwards, Dr. David Ko, Richard Busellato and Joe Augustin, as well as special guests, discuss the world's most pressing issues across all angles of the polycrisis, working to make sense of the extremely challenging and complex times we are all going through, plus what we can do about it. Help us move the needle so we can change the name of the show to something more genteel when (or if) it is no longer a sh*t show. #TheShitShow #UncommonCourage You can find me Andrea T Edwards | The Digital Conversationalist and Welcome - Uncommon Courage - An Invitation. My book Uncommon Courage, an invitation, is here https://mybook.to/UncommonCourage My book 18 Steps to an All-Star LinkedIn Profile, is here https://mybook.to/18stepstoanallstar 

Colin Beazley from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comes on The Fan Hotline to talk with fill-in host Jack Hillgrove about the latest involving the Pirates, including SS Konnor Griffin's first appearance with AA Altoona Curve in his rehab assignment.

Colin Beazley joins the show to talk about how close the Pirates are to another trade, what Pittsburgh could get in return for their No. 34 comp pick, if Aroldis Chapman could be a target for the Buccos, why Marcell Ozuna isn't getting much playing time this month, why Paul Skenes loves Henry Davis so much, why Skenes' velocity is down, if Skenes thinks his performance has been hindered because of the World Baseball Classic, and more!

Hour 4: Are the Steelers building a team to win a Super Bowl? Colin Beazley joins the show to preview the Pirates' next moves. And Dom details a crazy new movie releasing in theaters this August.

Colin Beazley from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comes on The Fan Hotline to address the latest developments from the Pirates, including injuries and roster moves, with Adam Crowley and Dorin Dickerson.

Neither side wants to come out and say what Jared Jones' role with the Pirates will be. Colin thinks Jones will be a starter, but be on a pitch count. Carmen Mlodzinski is the most likely to go to the bullpen. Colin thinks Jones will be activated right around May 26 when Jones is able to come on the injured list. Joey Bart has a foot infection and is too early to tell what the timeline will be. Endy Rodriguez could play for a bit.

Hour 2 with Joe Starkey: Neither side wants to come out and say what Jared Jones' role with the Pirates will be. Colin thinks Jones will be a starter, but be on a pitch count. Carmen Mlodzinski is the most likely to go to the bullpen. Colin thinks Jones will be activated right around May 26 when Jones is able to come on the injured list. Dennis Santana isn't a strikeout pitcher but does not look like himself. Colin doesn't think there is fear in opposing hitters going against him. Joe and Austin make their Steelers predictions, at this moment.

With the Artemis II crew completing the first crewed lunar flyby in 50 years, space is back in the spotlight, and so is the complex world of risk that surrounds it. In this episode of the Leader's Edge Podcast, Denis Bensoussan, head of space at Beazley, discusses innovations from the maturing space insurance market. From satellite constellations circling the globe to the possibility of data centers on the moon, risks in space are expanding almost as fast as the universe itself.

Colin Beazley from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comes on The Fan Hotline to preview the beginning of the Pirates' season with Adam Crowley and Dorin Dickerson.

Jack McGinn and Nadia Budihardjo discuss hurdles faced by projects in the Canning Basin. Plus: Regional fuel now WA's cheapest; Jera sells Ichthys and Gorgon stakes; and Beazley indicated Nedlands amalgamation on cards.

Israel claims a strike on Iran's cyber warfare headquarters. The Trump administration releases a new national cyber strategy.  DHS shakes up its IT and cybersecurity leadership. Velvet Tempest uses ClickFix to drop loaders and RATs. Researchers uncover a Linux cryptocurrency clipboard hijacker. The DOJ brings a Ghanaian romance scammer to justice. Online advertising enables government tracking. Monday business breakdown. Our guest is Jon France, CISO from ISC2, sharing some insights and findings from their 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study. An Apple II app gets audited by AI.  Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Joining us today is Jon France, CISO from ISC2, sharing some insights and findings from their 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study. For further detail, you can also check out ISC2's just released Women in Cybersecurity report. Selected Reading Iranian cyber warfare HQ allegedly hit by Israel | brief (SC Media) Iran internet blackout reaches 6th day as rights groups call for end to digital shutdown (The Record) The long-awaited Trump cyber strategy has arrived (CyberScoop) DHS CISO, deputy CISO exit amid reported IT leadership overhaul (FedScoop) Termite ransomware breaches linked to ClickFix CastleRAT attacks (Bleeping Computer) ClipXDaemon: Autonomous X11 Clipboard Hijacker Delivered Via Bincrypter-Based Loader (Cyble) Ghanaian Pleads Guilty to Role in $100m Romance Scam (Infosecurity Magazine) The Government Uses Targeted Advertising to Track Your Location. Here's What We Need to Do. (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Zurich Insurance Group intends to acquire UK cyber insurer Beazley for approximately $11 billion. (N2K Pro Business Briefing) Microsoft Azure CTO says Claude found vulns in Apple II code (The Register) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show.   Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beazley's Head of U.S. Cyber, Melissa Carmichael, breaks down the mounting pressures in the 2026 cyber insurance market and explains how insurers are balancing profitability, coverage, and emerging … Read More » The post AI Is Supercharging Ransomware. Is Cyber Insurance at Risk? appeared first on Insurance Journal TV.

Beazley's Head of U.S. Cyber, Melissa Carmichael, breaks down the mounting pressures in the 2026 cyber insurance market and explains how insurers are balancing profitability, coverage, and emerging … Read More » The post AI Is Supercharging Ransomware. Is Cyber Insurance at Risk? appeared first on Insurance Journal TV.

Beazley's Head of U.S. Cyber, Melissa Carmichael, breaks down the mounting pressures in the 2026 cyber insurance market and explains how insurers are balancing profitability, coverage, and emerging … Read More » The post AI Is Supercharging Ransomware. Is Cyber Insurance at Risk? appeared first on Insurance Journal TV.

Konnor Griffin has three home runs in spring training. Colin believes it could go either way if Griffin makes the Opening Day roster. Paul Skenes will have two starts, plus the exhibition to pitch for Team USA. He thinks Andrew McCutchen isn't back. Henry Davis will catch about two of every three games.

Hour 4 with Bob Pompeani and Joe Starkey: Konnor Griffin has three home runs in spring training. Colin believes it could go either way if Griffin makes the Opening Day roster. Paul Skenes will have two starts, plus the exhibition to pitch for Team USA. Is Konnor Griffin the most hyped up Pirates prospect of all time??

In this episode of The Insuring Cyber Podcast, Beazley's Head of US Cyber Melissa Carmichael discusses the mounting pressures shaping the cyber insurance market as it heads into … Read More » The post EP. 111: Navigating AI-Driven Risk and Cyber Market Pressure in 2026 appeared first on Insurance Journal TV.

In this episode of The Insuring Cyber Podcast, Beazley's Head of US Cyber Melissa Carmichael discusses the mounting pressures shaping the cyber insurance market as it heads into … Read More » The post EP. 111: Navigating AI-Driven Risk and Cyber Market Pressure in 2026 appeared first on Insurance Journal TV.

In this episode of The Insuring Cyber Podcast, Beazley's Head of US Cyber Melissa Carmichael discusses the mounting pressures shaping the cyber insurance market as it heads into … Read More » The post EP. 111: Navigating AI-Driven Risk and Cyber Market Pressure in 2026 appeared first on Insurance Journal TV.

Insurance leaders Brandon Schuh and Nick Hartmann unpack the real impact of AI on insurance operations after Insurify's ChatGPT app triggered a 3.9% drop in the S&P 500 Insurance Index. They separate hype from reality, examining how AI actually enhances productivity versus serving as a scapegoat for strategic workforce reductions. The conversation explores Munich Re's Ergo unit cutting 1,000 positions partly through AI integration, while contrasting this with AIG's ambitious 500,000-submission target using their AIG Assist platform by 2030.Major consolidation continues reshaping the industry landscape with Zurich's £8 billion ($11 billion) acquisition of specialty insurer Beazley following rejected initial bids, and Sompo Holdings' regulatory-approved $3.5 billion purchase of Aspen Insurance. Brandon and Nick also analyze the explosive Brown & Brown versus Howden lawsuit after approximately 200 employees departed during holiday season 2025, revealing tensions around non-compete enforcement and talent mobility in brokerage.Beyond M&A drama, Schuh and Hartman discuss underwriting culture at Lloyd's marketplace where reputation risk follows individual decisions, the legal profession's AI adaptation challenges for entry-level associates, and why operational visibility, not more tools, solves agency productivity problems. They emphasize that AI's greatest value lies in eliminating tedious data analysis so professionals can focus on client relationships and strategic advisory work.Key Takeaways- Insurify's ChatGPT integration caused temporary market panic but represents comparison shopping evolution, not industry disruption- AI productivity gains enable faster policy reviews while freeing teams for high-value client advisory work- Munich Re's Ergo unit (not entire company) plans 1,000 position reductions over five years with AI assistance- Zurich secured Beazley acquisition after multiple rejected bids reached £8 billion valuation- Sompo Holdings (not Sampo) received regulatory approval for $3.5 billion Aspen Insurance acquisition- Howden faces multiple lawsuits after approximately 200 Brown & Brown employees departed simultaneously in December 2025- Lloyd's underwriters carry personal reputation risk with each binding decision in the marketplace- Operational visibility tools like FreeFlow.ai solve agency bottlenecks without replacing producersChapters00:00 Episode introduction and sponsor FreeFlow.ai01:35 Return from hiatus and personal updates06:15 Bourbon tasting and Bob Dylan discussion07:14 Insurify ChatGPT app market impact analysis08:42 AI fears versus realistic productivity gains10:33 Legal profession AI adaptation challenges12:48 Policy review efficiency transformation potential13:07 Munich Re Ergo workforce reduction reality check18:15 Industry consolidation: Zurich/Beazley and Sompo/Aspen deals19:39 Brown & Brown versus Howden employee poaching lawsuit21:38 Underwriting culture and reputation risk at Lloyd's marketplace27:22 Ping An and global insurance employment statistics28:44 AIG Assist platform exceeding submission targets30:50 Two truths and a lie game segment33:42 Closing remarks and next episode previewFact Checks Correction: Sompo Holdings (Japanese insurer), not "Sampo," acquired Aspen Insurance for $3.5 billion with regulatory approval expected H1 2026 Clarification: Munich Re's Ergo primary insurance unit (not entire Munich Re) plans 1,000 position reductions in Germany over five years with AI integration Connect with RiskCellar:Website: https://www.riskcellar.com/Brandon Schuh:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552710523314LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-stephen-schuh/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schuhpapa/Nick Hartmann:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickjhartmann/

Konnor Griffin is the story again as Griffin has been hitting buildings in batting practice. Griffin has to earn his spot and leave no doubt to make the Opening Day roster. Don Kelly said it's too early to tell if the Pirates rotation will be five or six pitchers. Colin isn't expecting Endy Rodriguez or Rafael Flores to get a starting spot at the moment and need more reps.

Hour 4 with Joe Starkey: Konnor Griffin is the story again hitting buildings in batting practice. Griffin has to earn his spot and leave no doubt to make the Opening Day roster. Don Kelly said it's too early to tell if the Pirates rotation will be five or six pitchers. A trip into Starkey's mailbag. Who will lead the Pirates in home runs, RBIs, and hits? Who are your favorite play-by-play voices of all time?

Pirates Insider Colin Beazley joins the show. He said that the Pirate he has been the most impressed with down in Bradenton so far has been Marcell Ozuna. Colin says that he is a fan of the Ozuna signing, and he is a fan of the Pirates' new additions this offseason as a whole. Colin thinks that Jose Urquidy will get the 5th rotation spot out of the gate. 

Pirates Insider Colin Beazley joins the show. He said that the Pirate he has been the most impressed with down in Bradenton so far has been Marcell Ozuna. Colin says that he is a fan of the Ozuna signing, and he is a fan of the Pirates' new additions this offseason as a whole. Colin thinks that Jose Urquidy will get the 5th rotation spot out of the gate.  Round 2 of President's Day Trivia. Charlie ties it up at 1.  Donny Football Debrief with Intern Jack.

When the well-known banker J.P. Morgan was asked by a reporter to predict the future of the stock market, he gave this now-famous three-word reply: “It will fluctuate”. Here was someone wise enough to know that making predictions is a hazardous occupation at the best of times, and doubly so if those predictions relate to often fragile and volatile financial markets. But what the evasive and inscrutable Mr Morgan perhaps failed to realise is that the thought process required to produce a prediction is a very valuable exercise in and of itself. After all, you can only make a prediction if you have a very clear understanding of where you are, what is surrounding you and the nature and strength of the forces and influences that are being exerted upon the objects of your observation. The ultimate value of a prediction doesn't lie in its accuracy, but the clarity of vision and quality of analysis and understanding that has gone into making it. What a successful prediction ultimately requires is a large slice of luck, whereas an insightful piece of analysis always carries substantial inherent value, and paints a useful picture of underlying truths, no matter the eventual outcome. With this in mind, I have interviewed six experts with a highly eclectic set of skills and specialist knowledge, ranging from Geopolitics at the highest macro level, all the way down to highly specific perils that affect individual companies and the directors and employees who work for them. These perils might be state-sponsored, man-made, environmental, political, legal, cyber-related or indeed from beyond the earth's orbit entirely. They will all combine to paint a valuable picture of the state of the world today and the forces and trends likely to shape it, and the global insurance sector that serves it, in 2026 and beyond. My six bold predictors are: Beazley's Strategic adviser in Cyber and AI, Alex Creswell, CEO of Beazley Furlonge Ltd and Beazley's Group Head of Specialty Risks Bethany Greenwood, Head of Space Denis Bensoussan, Environmental Liability Focus Group Leader Jenny Han, Mandeep Gosal, Vice President of Global Professional Services at Beazley Security and, completing our line-up, Beazley's Global Cyber and Tech Claims Leader, Marcello Antonucci. That's a formidable group and a huge collective resource of expertise. So, listen on as we distil that collective wisdom and turn it into a useful and insightful podcast. NOTES & ABBREVIATIONS: IRGC is Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps LINKS: More 2026 predictions from Beazley's experts can be found here: Predictions 2026 | Beazley

#90: My guest today is Noa Beazley, who is a composer and music educator baed out of Boston, Massachusetts. He has composed for projects like Protodroid DeLTA, A Token War, and Phosfi working across a huge variety of genres all the way to dark folk music and everything in between. She's also an assistant professor at the Berklee College of Music teaching game scoring. She's also on the Board of Directors of the Boston Game Dev community and is also an organizer for the Boston Game Audio community.   In this episode, we talk about Noa's classical music upbringing, how she rebelled against the roots, an instead went on to study jazz vocals, arranging, and media composition, how she managed to find her first bits of work, negotiates for projects, balances teaching, composing, and community organizing, and so much more.   Find Noa here: Website: https://www.noabeazley.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noa-beazley-b74a7620a/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noabeazley/   Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro

Anthony flies solo to unpack the biggest stories in markets and M&A this week. First, a deep dive into the €25B Amsterdam IPO of Czechoslovak Group (CSG), a Czech defense giant capitalizing on Europe's surging military spend. Discover how a 33-year-old CEO is leading one of the region's most consequential listings amid geopolitical shifts. Then, we break down Netflix's bold all-cash move in its battle for Warner Bros., and how earnings guidance is reshaping investor sentiment. Plus: key headlines from Soho House to GSK and mega-mergers in rail and insurance. All in under 25 minutes.(00:00) Flying solo this week & episode overview(01:18) Soho House $2.7B take-private deal(01:49) Boston Scientific $15B acquisition of Penumbra(02:10) GSK $2.2B purchase of RAPT Therapeutics(03:11) Union Pacific & Norfolk Southern $71.5B merger(03:52) Zurich Insurance £7.67B bid for Beazley(04:21) Deep Dive into CSG's €25B Amsterdam IPO(07:17) From scrapyard to global defense giant(09:42) Why CSG is listing now(11:06) Europe's defense boom(14:04) Another IPO: Franco-German tank maker KNDS(15:00) Netflix's revised all-cash bid: Strategy explained(17:00) Netflix Q4 earnings breakdown: Subs, ads, guidance

It's been a dramatic week in a year already full of drama, with Donald Trump's sabre rattling over Greenland, and subsequent threat to impose further tariffs, causing alarm before being walked back on the basis of an apparent compromise.But with that saga now seemingly in the rear-view mirror – for how long, we don't know – we kick things off today with space exploration, which does have specific application to the current geopolitical debates as we shall discuss shortly. Mike Fahy is on hand to examine how the soaring space sector is faring ahead of a possible SpaceX IPO later this year.Then it's on to the latest part of the tech sector to attract widespread investor interest as a result of the AI craze: memory chip stocks in the US and further afield have been booming as people cotton on to the vital role they play in data centres. Arthur Sants, recently returned from a trip to the factories of South Korea, will discuss shares, shortages and smartphone prices, among other things.And to finish up we will be back on home turf as Julian Hofmann joins us to discuss the bid interest in Lloyd's insurer Beazley from Zurich, and the prospects for more consolidation across the sector in general.Timestamps 00:00 Intro1:29 Space Industry13:11 Memory chips21:43 Beazley takeover offerInvestors' Chronicle has supported private investors in the UK for over 160 years by highlighting rewarding investment opportunities. Investors' Chronicle is a service by the Financial Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of the AJ Money & Markets podcast explores the world of shares, pensions, property, wills, and much more.  Dan Coatsworth examines how financial markets have reacted to Donald Trump's threats to take over Greenland. Gold is closing in on $5,000 per ounce as investors seek assets that have historically protected people in tough times. [03:21]  We've just had the second FTSE 100 takeover bid of 2026, and we're only weeks into the new year. Dan talks about the bid for Beazley, and the downside if it disappears from the UK stock market. [07:16]  When the pensions lifetime allowance was abolished in 2024, it created a myth that age 75 no longer matters in the world of pensions. Charlene Young explains why 75 is still incredibly important. [08:53]  Discover how much first-time buyers need for a 10% deposit on a home in different parts of the country, and what the latest inflation figures mean for the direction of interest rates and mortgages in 2026. [14:08]  It's important to have a will so your assets go to the people of your choice when you die, but lawyers are now saying certain wills might be invalid. Charlene reveals all. [19:08]  AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould talks to Dan about what buy, hold, sell ratings on shares really mean, how they're created, and which UK stocks have the most or least of certain types of ratings. [25:13]  Finally, Danni Hewson talks to James Flintoft from AJ Bell's investments team about how AJ Bell funds performed last year and his thoughts on the year ahead. [35:14] 

Ohne Aktien-Zugang ist's schwer? Starte jetzt bei unserem Partner Scalable Capital. Mit eigenem KI-Chatbot, der dir alle Fragen rund ums Investieren beantwortet. Alle weiteren Infos gibt's hier: scalable.capital/oaws. USA & Europa drohen mit Zöllen. Gefällt Börse nicht. Alkohol wird immer unbeliebter. Gefällt Alkoholfirmen wie Carlsberg nicht. Oberstes US-Gericht will Glyphosat-Klagen prüfen, gefällt Bayer sehr. Zurich will Beazley und Chris Hohn hat Hedgefonds-Weltrekord. Spotify, Coinbase, Strategy. Viele junge Tech-Konzerne geben Wandelanleihen raus. Aber was bringen die für Investoren? Das diskutieren wir mit Stefan Schauer von Lupus Alpha. Mehr als 50% der Sojasauce in den USA kommt von Kikkoman (WKN: 856983). Eine Chance? Oder ist die Coca-Cola-Bewertung zu hoch? Diesen Podcast vom 20.01.2026, 3:00 Uhr stellt dir die Podstars GmbH (Noah Leidinger) zur Verfügung.

This week we talk to Jahan Anzsar, Group Chief Actuary at Beazley. We discuss: • Jahan's career journey and the skills you need to be an effective chief actuary. • Latest areas of focus on pricing, capital, reserving and analytics over 2026 • How to grow and develop an actuarial team that adds strategic value to the business.

Colin Beazley joins to discuss the Ryan O'Hearn signing, where he will play in the field, how the PIrates will approach DH, what this means for Andrew McCutchen, Nick Gonzales' outlook, what Okomoto could bring, what has been different about this offseason? Josh is not related to any notable Rowntrees/Roundtrees. It feels like the Pirates have taken some steps to winning back fans' trust. Why is it finally happening now? Will they see enough internal development? 

Colin Beazley joins to discuss the Ryan O'Hearn signing, where he will play in the field, how the PIrates will approach DH, what this means for Andrew McCutchen, Nick Gonzales' outlook, what Okomoto could bring, what has been different about this offseason? Josh is not related to any notable Rowntrees/Roundtrees. It feels like the Pirates have taken some steps to winning back fans' trust. Why is it finally happening now? Will they see enough internal development?  Could Eugenio Suarez be the final piece for the Pirates? Callers seem excited, but one wonders if Nutting will be selling. Could Jared Jones be the future closer? 

Our industry is a mature one and because of that, growth stories are highly valuable. So today, we're looking deeply into the best growth opportunity for insurance in decades. And to that end we are going to examine an industry experiencing exponential growth and looking to multiply the amount of capital that it deploys tenfold over the next five years. We are of course talking about data centres. The huge demand for computer processing power unleashed by the boom in the application of artificial intelligence is a key driver of this new demand. On a recent results call, Aon CEO Greg Case said that this new phenomenon could generate over $10 billion in new premium volume in 2026 alone. But whilst the opportunity is enormous, so are the challenges. We won't get ten billion dollars in new premiums a year without taking on substantial new volumes of risk. The sheer scale of investment in new data infrastructure is staggering, putting immense pressure on traditional construction methods, supply chains, power grids, the environment, and of course the traditional insurance market that is being asked to provide insurance cover for this unprecedented surge in the construction of vast assets. To help us analyse this opportunity from all angles, we've convened four experts, each offering a unique perspective— from an investor owning and operating the centres, to the underwriters covering property, environmental, and renewable energy risks. So I'm delighted to be joined by Atul Roy, an investor in digital infrastructure at Cordiant Capital who is representing the customer in our discussions; Lindsay Shipper, Head of North American Commercial Property at Beazley; Ben Sheppard, a renewable energy underwriting expert; and Nicholas Pearson who is a specialist in environmental liability risk underwriting.

Episode Info William Pitt is the executive director of FASE (Fédération des Agences de Souscription Européennes), an association founded to address a widely recognized need for a pan-European body to represent Europe's fast-growing, but little understood, MGA sector. Prior to establishing FASE in 2025, William led research and consulting projects at Lexicon Associates and Conning. He is the author of The MGA Revolution: How MGAs are reshaping the insurance value chain, published by Lexicon Associates in November 2024. He previously led consulting initiatives for Conning in the United States and was the author of Conning's annual MGA studies. Prior to joining Conning in 2021, he served for twelve years as global chief marketing officer at Beazley. Earlier in his career, he held senior marketing and business development roles at Marsh & McLennan Companies and Lloyd's. William has written extensively on insurance for publications including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Institutional Investor, the Insurer, and Corriere della Sera. He is the author of More Equal than Others: A Director's Guide to EU Competition Policy, published by Director Books. Episode Overview:  Background and Career William Pitt shares his journey in the insurance industry, emphasizing his involvement in the delegated authority market and the MGA sector. He discusses his roles at Conning and Lexicon Associates, where he focused on research and consulting. FASE and Its Mission Pitt explains FASE as a federation of MGAs, capacity providers, and service providers, aiming to support the entire delegated authority ecosystem. He compares it to the successful Target Markets organization in the US. The Role of Technology and Talent The discussion highlights the importance of technology and talent in the MGA space. Pitt notes the migration of talent to MGAs and the role of technology in enabling these businesses to operate more efficiently. Challenges and Opportunities in the MGA Market Pitt addresses the challenges of integrating new technologies into established carriers and the opportunities for MGAs to be more adaptable and nimble. He also discusses the evolving landscape in Europe and the potential for growth. The Future of MGAs in Europe The conversation turns to the future of MGAs in Europe, with Pitt expressing optimism about the growth and internationalization of MGAs. He emphasizes the need for MGAs to navigate regulations and access capacity providers. Conclusion The interview concludes with Pitt's insights on the unique moment for the MGA space in Europe and the exciting opportunities ahead. Key Takeaways FASE aims to support the MGA ecosystem by fostering collaboration and innovation. Technology and talent are crucial drivers of success in the MGA market. The MGA sector is poised for significant growth, particularly in Europe, as it adapts to new challenges and opportunities. This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

The North Shore Nine crew sat down at the Winter Meetings with Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for a fast-moving AMA packed with insights. From Ketel Marte trade buzz to Okamoto possibilities, Rule 5 targets, payroll expectations, and what the Pirates might still have up their sleeves, Colin delivered clarity on a chaotic week in Orlando. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Deep down we are all know that innovation isn't just a buzzword; it's really a matter of long-term survival. It is getting increasingly difficult to argue against the idea that the speed of change keeps accelerating and we now live in a world where what was science fiction only 20 years ago could soon become the norm. For instance, who would have guessed that the majority of our growing energy needs are going to be almost entirely met my novel green production methods within the next twenty-five years, perhaps even including scaled up nuclear fusion within the mix? Who would have imagined that commercial exploitation of space would become ever more economically viable, including the possibility of space-based manufacturing and even lunar habitation? In such an environment a failure to innovate means that not only will your company stagnate over time, but better-run, more innovative competitors might take an unassailable lead over you. If innovation is imperative this begs the question of whether there is a way of bottling up and distilling what the most innovative companies do, so we can try to be more like them. That's what this Special Episode is all about. For one, does an innovation mindset or methodology exist? And more importantly, can we capture it, codify it, and embed it throughout large and complex organisations? To explore this and the major upcoming engineering, technological, financial and intellectual challenges of the next two decades, I'm joined today by a stellar line-up of guests from Beazley and wider industry. We'll hear from Adrian Cox, Beazley's CEO, Neil Kempston, its Head of Incubation Underwriting and Denis Bensoussan, Head of Space. I also talk to Rob Grant, Managing Director at Pollination, a specialist advisor and investor in the energy transition who is here to give us an external perspective. It's an exciting time to be at the forefront of this change, helping to unlock investment and build a more sustainable future. I don't know about you, but I have ended this process in a much more optimistic frame of mind than I began it. I hope you too have been able to take some inspiration and comfort from this investigation. LINKS: Here's a link to further reading on the Energy Transition from the team at Beazley: https://www.beazley.com/en-US/news-and-events/spotlight-on-environmental-climate-risk-2025/powering-progress/  

Post-Gazette Pirates insider Colin Beazley discusses the last week in Pirates' minor league baseball, as both Double-A Altoona and High-A Greensboro advanced to the minor league playoffs. Beazley discusses what this means and what next steps are, before highlighting nine players who stood out in the last week: Rafael Flores, Hunter Barco, Brandan Bidois, Konnor Griffin, Termarr Johnson, Duce Gourson, Callan Moss, Edward Florentino and Levi Sterling.

Post-Gazette Pirates insider Colin Beazley gives the latest updates on the Pirates minor league system, as top prospects Konnor Griffin and Esmerlyn Valdez are leading Double-A Altoona to their first playoff berth since 2018. Valdez and pitcher Wilber Dotel earned Eastern League Player and Pitcher of the Week honors, the first time two Altoona players have done that since 2012. Beazley also discusses Rafael Flores, Nick Yorke, Sammy Siani, Nick Cimillo, Callan Moss, Jared Jones, Edward Florentino and Tony Blanco Jr.

On Konnor Griffin's Double-A debut day, Post-Gazette Pirates insider Colin Beazley gives his thoughts on the Pirates' No. 2 farm system ranking and the four top-100 prospects that earned that nod: Griffin, Bubba Chandler, Seth Hernandez and Edward Florentino. Beazley recaps a good week for the Altoona Curve, then gives updates on Hunter Barco, Rafael Flores, Bubba Chandler, Johan Oviedo, Termarr Johnson, Nick Cimillo, Callan Moss, Ivan Brethowr and Florentino.