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.
Recent advisories from U.S. federal authorities on vulnerabilities in certain operational technology devices underscore the potential security risks that many healthcare providers frequently underestimate, said Sila Özeren, a security research engineer at Picus Security.
Security budgets are lowest in healthcare, professional and business services, retail, and hospitality, but budget growth remained above 5% in financial services, insurance, and tech.
HHS Says New FAQs Support HHS' 'Make Health IT Great Again' Interoperability EffortFederal regulators issued updated HIPAA privacy rule guidance that aims to clarify when patients' protected health information can be shared with value-based care organizations, and also the types of health records that patients have a right to access upon request. Does it cover any new ground?
Clinical Diagnostics Lab Hack Among Latest Recent Cyberattacks in the NetherlandsA Dutch population health research agency is notifying 485,000 participants of a cervical cancer screening program of a hacking incident at a clinical diagnostics laboratory that potentially compromised patients' personal and health information, including lab test results.
Healthcare led all industries in 2024 breaches—over 275M patient records exposed, mostly via weak or stolen passwords. See how the self-hosted password manager by Passwork helps providers meet HIPAA requirements, protect ePHI, and keep care running. Try it free for 1 month. [...]
Threat actors have stolen data on at least half a million cancer screening patients