Stay updated with the latest healthcare cybersecurity trends, news, and tips to protect patient data and comply with medical industry security standards.
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Background for this topic.
Healthcare is the delivery of clinical care and related services through hospitals, clinics, laboratories, pharmacies, insurers, and connected medical devices. It depends on electronic health records (EHRs), patient identity systems, diagnostic and imaging platforms, medication and scheduling systems, and data exchanges between organizations. These environments hold sensitive health and payment information, while the availability and integrity of systems can affect treatment, diagnostics, and patient safety.
Security concerns include unauthorized access or disclosure of records, alteration of clinical data, and disruption of care through attacks on EHRs, connected devices, or third-party services. Defenses require risk-based access controls, strong authentication, network separation where appropriate, secure device and software maintenance, backups that support clinical continuity, and tested downtime and incident-response procedures. Vulnerability management must account for legacy systems and devices that cannot be patched quickly. Privacy and compliance obligations, such as HIPAA in the United States, shape how organizations collect, use, share, retain, and report health information.
The Change Healthcare mega hack has taken nearly 120 of the company's IT products and services offline since Feb. 21, and that cyber disruption is having serious, widespread impact on the entire healthcare industry including major players, said attorney Sara Goldstein of the law firm BakerHostetler.
One Month Later, Lurie Children's Hospital Still Recovering From Ransomware AttackRansomware group Rhysida is offering to sell "exclusive data" stolen from a Chicago children's hospital for $3.4 million on the dark web, while the hospital is still struggling to recover its IT systems, including its electronic health records and patient portal, one month after the attack.
Feds Issue Alert as Change Healthcare Hack Affects Medicare, CVS Caremark, MetLifeBlackCat claimed on its dark web site that it is behind the biggest healthcare hack so far the year - exfiltrating 6 terabytes of "highly selective data" relating to "all" Change Healthcare clients, including Tricare, Medicare, CVS Caremark, MetLife and more.
5-Year Plan Details How to Raise the Bar on Health Ecosystem's Approach to CyberThe Health Sector Coordinating Council has issued a five-year strategic plan - "a call to action" - for healthcare and public health organizations to implement cybersecurity programs that do a better job of protecting their patients against the ever-rising tide of threats.
Some Researchers Confident ConnectWise ScreenConnect Flaw Was Exploited in AttackHealthcare industry groups are urging their members to take certain precautionary actions in the wake of the attack last week on Change Healthcare, a unit of Optum. The advisories come as some researchers say the incident appears to involve exploitation of flaws in ConnectWise's ScreenConnect tool.