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.
Implantable brain devices introduce a new and significantly more complex class of cybersecurity risk and critical privacy concerns, compared with traditional medical devices, given the sensitivity of neural data, says Professor Kevin Fu of the Archimedes Center at Northeastern University.
Healthcare sector mergers and acquisitions dramatically amplify cybersecurity and data privacy exposure for potential buyers and sellers, said attorney Jonian Rafti of law firm Proskauer. But there are critical steps entities can take to reduce those risks, he said.
Third-party security threats remain one of the most critical risks facing the healthcare sector. But now the increasing use of artificial intelligence by vendors adds a new layer of third-party concerns, said independent consultant Rick Doten, former healthplan CISO at Centene Corp.
Healthcare cyberattacks are on the rise, but industry organizations say the proposed changes to the security rules fall short of what's needed.
Healthcare data breaches are becoming more frequent but smaller in scale, targeting smaller entities and high-value credentials and records - and AI is reshaping both the attack landscape and fraud patterns, said Jim Van Dyke, senior principal of innovation at TransUnion.
Baker University has disclosed a data breach after attackers gained access to its network one year ago and stole the personal, health, and financial information of over 53,000 individuals. [...]
Preparing a healthcare workforce to responsibly engage with AI tools without over relying on automation or undermining human oversight will require awareness training akin to phishing exercises, said Skip Sorrels, field CTO and CISO at security firm Claroty.
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