Stay updated with the latest healthcare cybersecurity trends, news, and tips to protect patient data and comply with medical industry security standards.
Search across headline titles and summaries.
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.
Whoopsies in Ireland and Scotland speak to a tenuousness of cyber protections for sensitive private healthcare data.
Healthcare organizations and makers of medical devices need to think about how to safeguard their critical medical gear against future cyberthreats, including the looming dangers posed by quantum computing, said Mike Nelson, global vice president of digital trust at security firm DigiCert.
In the aftermath of a ransomware attack several years ago, Hackensack Meridian Health embarked on transforming its cybersecurity program with the support of top leadership and increased funding and staff and by implementing critical security tools and best practices, said CISO Mark Johnson.
An AppOmni researcher detailed a misconfiguration in the HSE COVID Vaccination Portal, exposing the health and personal data of over a million Irish citizens
It's critical for hospitals and other firms to not only prepare for how they will respond to a cyberattack but also to consider the regional impact if a neighboring provider of services needed in the community is disrupted by a serious cyber incident, said Margie Zuk of Mitre.
The U.S. healthcare sector needs to closely watch government regulatory and legislative developments involving artificial intelligence, including the European Union AI Act, said Lee Kim, senior principal of cybersecurity and privacy at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
Healthcare sector organizations need to focus their attention on meeting the "voluntary" essential and enhanced cybersecurity performance goals set out by federal regulators before they become potential mandates, said Kate Pierce, virtual information security officer at Fortified Heath Security.
The US government will investigate whether protected healthcare information was breached in the Change Healthcare ransomware attack, and if the firm complied with HIPAA rules
Services slowly coming back online but providers still struggling Change Healthcare is being investigated over the alleged 6 TB data theft by the ALPHV ransomware group as it continues recovery efforts.…
HHS OCR Tells UnitedHealth Group it Will Scrutinize Co.'s HIPAA ComplianceFederal regulators have informed UnitedHealth Group that they have launched a full-fledged investigation into a potential massive compromise of protected health information stemming from the Change Healthcare cyberattack. A potential PHI breach could affect tens of millions of individuals.
The vast healthcare ecosystem disruption caused by the recent attack on Change Healthcare, which affected more than 100 of the company's IT products and services, underscores the concentrated cyber risk when a major vendor suffers a serious cyber incident, said Keith Fricke, partner at tw-Security.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investigating whether protected health information was stolen in a ransomware attack that hit UnitedHealthcare Group (UHG) subsidiary Optum, which operates the Change Healthcare platform, in late February. [...]
US Healthcare Entities Are Firmly in Akira Ransomware Group's Sights, Expert WarnsRansomware groups may come and go, but often it's only in name, as the individuals involved will move on to power whatever group remains a going concern. Cue a reported flow of top talent from LockBit, which was recently disrupted by law enforcement, to Akira, which is apparently alive and well.
The healthcare sector needs a 911-style cyber civil defense system that can help all segments of the industry, including under-resourced groups, to more rapidly and effectively respond to cyberattacks and related incidents, said Erik Decker, CISO of Intermountain Health and a federal cyber adviser.
Plus almost $1.5b for health-care cybersecurity US President Joe Biden has asked Congress to approve an extra $103 million in funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, bringing CISA's total budget to $3 billion.…
The Department of Health and Human Services is working on grant programs and other financial programs to help under-resourced healthcare organizations deal with the cybersecurity challenges they're facing, said La Monte Yarborough, CISO and acting deputy CIO at HHS.
US senator calls cyber attack 'inexcusable,' calls for mandatory security rules The Biden administration and US lawmakers are turning up the pressure on UnitedHealth group to ease medical providers' pain after the ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, by expediting payments to hospitals, physicians and pharmacists – among other tactics.…
The Change Healthcare attack is already providing valuable lessons to healthcare firms - primarily the importance of resilience, especially when it comes the industry's supply chain and third parties, said Nitin Natarajan, deputy director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Sunil Dadlani, CIO and CISO of Atlantic Health System on AI Promise, RisksAI holds enormous potential for transforming and reimagining all aspects of healthcare, but mitigating the risks requires a collaborative, comprehensive approach prioritizing data security, regulatory compliance, and ethical considerations, said Sunil Dadlani, CIO and CISO at Atlantic Health System.