CGI image of a padlock on a digital platform
Cybersecurity In Focus

With stakes higher than ever, healthcare cybersecurity must rise to meet the moment

The days when a healthcare organization's biggest security worry was a data breach or a HIPAA violation are over. The cyber landscape has changed utterly with the advent of near-daily attacks on hospitals and health systems. Ransomware has become a near-daily occurrence and now routinely disrupts critical IT systems for days, weeks, even months – posing serious threats to patient safety and essential financial functions.

Thankfully, healthcare organizations are now taking the threat seriously in a way they may not have several years ago. As IT and security leaders guard against current threats and try to forecast future ones, they face a challenging task.

Photo: zf L/Getty Images

George Pappas of Intraprise Health on cybersecurity
News
A cybersecurity CEO offers advice on tactics healthcare CISOs and CIOs should use to protect...
By Bill Siwicki |
Rebecca Herold from the IEEE on AI and cybersecurity
News
How is artificial intelligence being used to identify anomalies in sensitive healthcare data to...
By Bill Siwicki |
IOT security concept image Photo by John M Lund Photography Inc/Getty Images
News
Himaja Motheram, a security researcher, walks CISOs and other security leaders through the various...
By Nathan Eddy |
Patient sits in a patient gown in a medical exam room
News
A week of discussion spearheaded by the patient advocate group aims to highlight the risks of harm...
By Andrea Fox |
David Heaney of Mass General Brigham on cybersecurity and AI
News
Understanding the threat environment, knowing where controls are deployed and other core...
By Bill Siwicki |
Mass General Brigham and generative AI
News
David Heaney, chief information security officer at Mass General Brigham, explains how genAI can...
By Bill Siwicki |
Doctor looking at medical images on PACs
News
The Homeland Security agency points to 13 vulnerabilities with the networked medical imaging and...
By Andrea Fox |
Sunil Dadlani of Atlantic Health System on AI
News
At the upcoming HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum, Chief Information and Digital Officer Sunil Dadlani...
By Bill Siwicki |
Cybersecurity professional checks incident monitoring logs
News
While the healthcare group "strongly supports" CIRCIA's security goals, it's...
By Mike Miliard |
Exterior of small rural hospital
News
The AHA and National Rural Health Association are also onboard for the initiative, which will offer...
By Mike Miliard |
Steve Cagle at Clearwater_Doctor using tablet with holograms photo by PeopleImages/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Video
All organizations need to define where their cybersecurity risks lie, and consider gaps in threat...
By HIMSS TV |
Clinicians consult a tablet
News
To improve healthcare cybersecurity, an organization can shore up Internet-enabled device...
By Andrea Fox |
Woman works IT help desk in a support center
News
The agency says threat actors are targeting organizations' IT help desks with phone calls from...
By Andrea Fox |
Stethoscope on an iPad
News
Poorly controlled cloud environments, growing access to systems, heightened regulatory scrutiny and...
By Bill Siwicki |
Darren Lacey of Johns Hopkins on cybersecurity
News
Darren Lacey discusses the key foundational technologies underlying healthcare's IT...
By Bill Siwicki |
IT and cybersecurity leaders in server room
News
In healthcare, larger hospitals, all critical access hospitals, essential drug manufacturers and...
By Andrea Fox |
Digital abstract of a padlock
News
Also: Availity clarifies reports that it has cut ties with the clearinghouse and says it "...
By Andrea Fox |
A doctor in a lab coat standing and texting in a hallway
News
Texting of patient orders among members by healthcare teams is now permissible at hospitals and...
By Andrea Fox |
Physician uses fax machine
News
The nonprofit group's Interoperable Secure Cloud Fax Consensus Body aims to add cross-platform...
By Mike Miliard |
Map of Florida
News
The Sunshine State's proposed law would shield governments and businesses against liability...
By Andrea Fox |
Three colleagues are seated and working on various devices.
News
Ahead of new enforceable standards, U.S. Health and Human Services has released voluntary...
By Andrea Fox |
computer code on a screen
News
The HHS 405(d) program has new resources to help small to large healthcare organizations navigate...
By Andrea Fox |
FBI seal on an interior wall
News
The DOJ announced that the FBI also has decryptor keys for Blackcat ransomware victims and will...
By Andrea Fox |
The draft NIST differential privacy pyramid
News
The National Institute of Standards and Technology created guidance for evaluating differential...
By Andrea Fox |
Three cybersecurity professionals talk in a network control room.
News
"The AHA cannot support proposals for mandatory cybersecurity requirements being levied on...
By Andrea Fox |
Hands using a cellular device
News
Some healthcare organizations use homegrown tracking technologies to avoid third-party disclosures...
By Neil Versel |
Abstract of a lock as part of a printed circuit
News
"When we see a vulnerability or intrusion campaign that could have been reasonably avoided if...
By Andrea Fox |
Healthcare patient at home desk with laptop
News
In a complaint filed in federal court in Texas, the hospital group says enforcement of the Office...
By Neil Versel |
Code on a computer monitor
News
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Department of Health and Human...
By Andrea Fox |