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 chaos experienced by thousands of healthcare organizations in the wake of the massive Change Healthcare cyberattack and IT outage in February is proof that most organizations are simply unprepared for such devastating incidents, said Bryan Chnowski, deputy CISO at Nuvance Health.
Many healthcare organizations have discovered major gaps in business operations preparedness - the ability to quickly rebound from major IT disruptions, such as those caused by the Change Healthcare cyberattack. Jigar Kadakia, CISO of Emory Healthcare, said it's time to come up with a Plan B.
Healthcare is increasingly complex and interconnected, and the push to exchange more digital patient information among providers adds to the threat of busy staff falling victim to phishing and other scams that can jeopardize data, said Krista Arndt, CISO of United Musculoskeletal Partners.
NHS England revealed today that multiple London hospitals impacted by last week's Synnovis ransomware attack were forced to cancel hundreds of planned operations and appointments. [...]
Ascension, one of the largest U.S. healthcare systems, revealed that a May 2024 ransomware attack was caused by an employee who downloaded a malicious file onto a company device. [...]
All Patients, Employees Offered Credit Monitoring While Investigation ContinuesRansomware attackers stole files that potentially contain patient and employee data from seven of Ascension's 25,000 servers. The hackers gained access to the organization's network when an employee inadvertently downloaded a file containing malware, said the Missouri-based healthcare system.
It's critical for CISOs to study what went wrong in major ransomware IT disruptions and breaches hitting the healthcare sector and to look closely within their own organizations for similar gaps or vulnerabilities, said Michael Prakhye, CISO of Adventist HealthCare.
Healthcare firm Ascension said that ransomware attackers gained access to its systems after an employee accidently downloaded a malicious file
Confidential patient information found by member of the public A data protection gaffe affecting the UK's NHS is being pinned on a medical student who placed too much trust in their bin bags.…
A study investigating the impact of ransomware attacks on hospitals and the ripple effect on nearby facilities is a call to action for policymakers to seriously address how those assaults can be better handled in the health sector, said researchers Rahi Abouk and David Powell.
Perry Johnson & Associates' 2023 Data Theft Breach Affected About 14 MillionThe 2023 hack at medical transcription firm Perry Johnson & Associates, which affected dozens of clients and about 14 million individuals, triggered the largest health data breach reported to regulators last year. Now the incident appears to be under federal criminal investigation.
Operations at Synnovis medical labs have been disrupted for more than a week, prompting the NHS to implore the public to donate blood.
VoIP gear, hypervisors, medical equipment, building automation, printers, and more pose broad risk to organizations, with many facing danger from a combo of IT, IoT, and OT all at once. This listicle breaks it down.
Bipartisan U.S. Senators Demand Change Healthcare Breach Notification by June 21Two U.S. senators are demanding UnitedHealth Group report a HIPAA breach and notify affected individuals no later than June 21, alleging the company is already violating HIPAA by dragging out the notification process in the aftermath of the Feb. 21 cyberattack on Change Healthcare.
Vendors' Free, Discounted Services Part of Biden's Health Sector Cyber InitiativeGoogle and Microsoft have agreed to provide free or highly discounted cyber assistance to rural and critical-access hospitals to support of an evolving strategy from the White House aimed at bolstering cybersecurity in the healthcare sector in the face of rising attacks.
England's NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) has issued an urgent call to O Positive and O Negative blood donors to book appointments and donate after last week's cyberattack on pathology provider Synnovis impacted multiple hospitals in London. [...]
Urgent Appeal Issued for O Type Blood; Attack Disrupts Patient Blood Type MatchingThe ransomware attack on a U.K. pathology services vendor has disrupted multiple London hospitals' ability to match patients' blood with available stocks. Lacking an IT system-level plan B, officials are resorting to a biologics backup by urging O type blood donors to come forward.
London hospitals continue to suffer the after-effects of a major ransomware attack last week