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.
Australian Human Rights Commission Detected Leak of 670 Online Forms After a MonthThe Australian Human Rights Commission said unprotected online complaint forms exposed the personal, healthcare and demographic information of Australians to the public internet for over a month. The data leak exposed 670 complaints and nominations online.
Serviceaide Incident Exposed Patient Data of Catholic Health, a NY-Based ClientServiceaide, a provider of agentic AI-based IT management and workflow software, reported to regulators that an inadvertent exposure of data on the web has affected more than 483,000 patients of client Catholic Health, a network of six hospitals and dozens of other facilities in western New York.
Hundreds of Firewall Alarms Sounded But Weren't Heeded, CrowdStrike Probe FindsThe governor of Rhode Island slammed professional services firm Deloitte for failing to spot a months-long hack attack against the RIBridges health and human services data environment it manages, despite hundreds of firewall alerts sounding as attackers exfiltrated gigabytes of data.
Urges Companies to Regularly Patch Their ProductsIn a bid to prevent disruptive hacks, the English National Health Service is prodding suppliers to commit to voluntary cybersecurity measures, which include regularly patching IT systems, instituting MFA, and monitoring systems to allow prompt incident response.
New data from Darktrace showed that cyber-attacks targeting healthcare organizations increased in intensity in 2024
Financially Strapped Cloud Services Firm Settles Suit From 2020 Patient Data HackA financially strapped cloud services vendor that experienced a 2020 ransomware attack affecting dozens of healthcare sector clients and hundreds of thousands of patients has agreed to a $1.9 million settlement in proposed class action litigation involving the data theft case.
Urges Companies to Regularly Patch Their ProductsThe British National Health Service is prodding suppliers to commit to voluntary cybersecurity measures in a bid to prevent disruptive hacks. Among the proposed measures are regularly patching IT systems, instituting multifactor authentication and requiring IT suppliers to monitor and log their systems to allow prompt incident response.
In what experts are calling a novel legal outcome, the 22-year-old former administrator of the cybercrime community Breachforums will forfeit nearly $700,000 to settle a civil lawsuit from a health insurance company whose customer data was posted for sale on the forum in 2023. Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, a.k.a. "Pompompurin," is slated for resentencing next month after pleading guilty to access device fraud and possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Company Deploys Thousands of Use Cases, Underscores Responsible AI to Rebuild TrustUnitedHealth faces AI backlash after nH Predict's 90% error rate and a DOJ probe. With more than 1,000 AI applications from call routing to claims efficiency and a robust responsible AI policy, the company aims to balance innovation with trust in a high-stakes bid to reshape healthcare.
The voluntary cybersecurity charter asks NHS suppliers to commit to eight cybersecurity pledges, amid rising attacks on healthcare
HHS Secretary Testifies to Congress on Trump Administration's FY 2026 Budget PlansThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services aims to bolster cybersecurity and health IT through the aid of artificial intelligence that will be used at federal health agencies, said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of HHS during House and Senate committee budget hearings on Wednesday.
A cyber espionage group known as Earth Ammit has been linked to two related but distinct campaigns from 2023 to 2024 targeting various entities in Taiwan and South Korea, including military, satellite, heavy industry, media, technology, software services, and healthcare sectors
Former Business Partner's Third-Party Software at Center of Hospital Chain's IncidentAscension Health is notifying nearly 440,000 patients of a breach involving a former business partner and exploit of a third-party software flaw. Some experts speculate the incident involved Cleo managed file transfer software. The breach is one of several Ascension experienced in recent months.
Alabama Ophthalmology Practice, California Dental Clinic Report BreachesCybercriminal gang BianLian claims to have stolen patient information in two recent hacks of an Alabama-based ophthalmology practice and a California dental clinic. The two incidents affected nearly 150,000 people and are among the extortion group's latest attacks on the healthcare sector.