Data Breach Today Podcast

About 75% of healthcare sector entities that suffered a ransomware attack over the past year were targeted on a weekend or holiday, highlighting the need for organizations to bolster staffing and related strategies during these vulnerable times, said Jeff Wichman of security firm Semperis.

The torrents of public hostility directed at health insurers in the aftermath of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson's murder are serious signs of intensifying cyber and physical threats facing the C-suites of healthcare and many other sectors, said Chris Pierson, founder and CEO of BlackCloak.

Hackers can potentially use AI to manipulate data that's generated and shared by some health apps, diminishing the data's accuracy and integrity, said Sina Yazdanmehr and Lucian Ciobotaru of cybersecurity firm Aplite, describing a recent research project involving Google Health Connect.

Third-party access management poses significant cybersecurity risks in healthcare, but continuous identity management and monitoring can help mitigate those risks, said Jim Routh, chief trust officer at Saviynt.

Thousands of unique IP addresses are potentially exposing medical devices, electronic medical records systems and other sensitive healthcare information to the internet, said security researcher Himaja Motheram of security firm Censys, which made the discovery.

It goes without saying: Business ecosystems are increasingly complex, and so are the cybersecurity systems and strategies deployed to protect them. But Marty McDonald of Optiv and Rob Rachwald of Palo Alto Networks share new ideas on how to take some of the complexity out of cybersecurity.

When a large hospital in an urban area is shut down by ransomware, the disruption can be significant, but when a rural hospital faces a similar cyber outage, the impact on patient safety and the community can be extreme, said Nitin Natarajan of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

While ransomware attacks against medical devices don't happen often, disruptive cyber incidents that affect the availability of the IT systems that medical devices rely on are a big concern that needs the industry's critical attention, said Jessica Wilkerson of the FDA.

It's crucial for healthcare sector organizations to vet their artificial intelligence tech vendors in the same robust way they scrutinize the privacy and security practices of all their other third-party suppliers, said attorney Linda Malek of the law firm Crowell & Moring.

Manufacturing enterprises have more identities than ever to manage - human and non - and face more attacks upon these identities. Manual lifecycle management can't keep pace. Trane Technologies' Aaron Havenar talks about automated identity security measures that don't compromise operational efficiency.

Healthcare organizations should rethink some of their approach to security, enhancing focus on insider threats, improving cyber awareness training and securing mobile applications and devices, said Ryan Witt, vice president of industry solutions at Proofpoint, discussing findings of a new study.

It's yet to be determined whether a handful of states or the federal government will lead the charge in adopting comprehensive regulations involving the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare, said regulatory attorney Betsy Hodge, a partner in law firm Akerman.

As threat actors continue to evolve their attacks to circumvent security measures, cyber insurers are raising the bar for prospective healthcare security clients. Underwriters are increasing their scrutiny and adding new coverage requirements, said Chris Henderson of cybersecurity company Huntress.

Recent mega data breaches involving third-party vendors - such as the Change Healthcare cyberattack - are intensifying the spotlight on critical security risk management and governance issues for business associates and other suppliers, said regulatory attorney Rachel Rose.

Preparing healthcare organizations to respond to and rebound from a disruptive ransomware attack is akin to implementing a "12-step program," said Dr. Eric Liederman, CEO of consultancy CyberSolutionsMD and recently retired long-serving director of medical informatics at Kaiser Permanente.

Authentication requiring stored credentials is not only vulnerable to phishing and other compromises, but using these credentials can also be cumbersome for busy clinicians, said Tina Srivastava, co-founder of Badge, a provider of deviceless, tokenless authentication technology.

Unifying fragmented network security technology under a single platform allows for consistent policy application across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments, said Palo Alto Networks' Anand Oswal. Having a consistent policy framework simplifies management and improves security outcomes.

The interconnectedness of medical devices, which generate data that can be distributed to multiple systems that are often managed by different policies, presents privacy concerns that device manufacturers must address, said Adam Hesse, CEO of Full Spectrum.

Healthcare groups should consider several key points about a recent Texas federal court ruling and its impact on the use of online tracker technology on the healthcare websites of HIPAA-regulated organizations, said privacy attorney Iliana Peters of the law firm Polsinelli.

The deployment of an asset management platform is helping Main Line Health gain deeper visibility and better security over the 100,000-plus medical devices and IoT gear used throughout the group's multiple hospitals and medical facilities, said CISO Aaron Weismann, who discusses the implementation.