Critical infrastructure depends on interconnected operational systems, where cyber incidents can disrupt essential services, safety, and availability.
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Critical infrastructure includes systems and assets vital for public health, safety, and economic stability, such as power grids, water treatment, transportation networks, and healthcare facilities. These systems often combine physical components with industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) that manage essential services in real time.
From an information-security perspective, critical infrastructure faces risks like unauthorized access to control systems, disruption of service availability, and manipulation of sensor data. Defending these assets requires specialized security measures tailored to ICS environments, including network segmentation, strict access controls, and continuous monitoring for anomalies. Ensuring resilience also involves coordinated efforts between operators and government agencies to address vulnerabilities unique to legacy systems and proprietary protocols.
Use cases of AI in healthcare will continue to expand in 2026 - including for back-office automation, ambient exam room documentation, claims processing and clinical decision support - but so will critical privacy, security, legal and other risks, said attorney Wendell Bartnick of law firm Reed Smith.
Breach Affected More Than a Dozen Healthcare Clients, 2.5M PatientsElectronic health records vendor Veradigm agreed to pay $10.5 million to settle consolidated class action litigation involving a December 2024 hacking incident discovered in mid-2025 that affected more than a dozen healthcare provider clients and about 2.5 million of their patients.
State Monitoring Incident Involving a Health Entity Worker for Potential FraudThe Minnesota Department of Human Services is notifying nearly 304,000 people of data breach involving someone at a healthcare provider who inappropriately accessed information from an IT system managed by a vendor. State officials are monitoring the incident for potential fraud.
Revised Cybersecurity Act Would Also Boost ENISACountries across the EU could be forced to kick Chinese telecom manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE out of their critical infrastructure supply chains, under a far-reaching proposal published by the European Commission on Tuesday.
Feds Pushing HIPAA Regulated Entities to Bolster Security Risk ManagementFederal regulators are advising regulated healthcare firms and their third-party vendors to harden systems, software and medical devices to better safeguard protected health information. Hardening is a necessary measure for protecting data privacy security - but also in protecting patient safety.