Hospitals, like many other contemporary institutions, are increasingly dependent on information systems for a wide range of administrative and clinical tasks. They are highly complex entities in their operations, frequently running continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
In this edition of our newsletter, we highlight the best practices for implementing effective cybersecurity in healthcare, as outlined by Medigate in their article.
1. Discovering All Devices on the Network
Every day, new devices are connected to an HDOs network, often without proper authorization. While these devices are essential for patient care, they also introduce additional cyber risks. By identifying all assets on the network, organizations can gain a comprehensive understanding of their attack surface and identify potential security risks. They will also be able to proactively monitor the network for any unexpected activity or unauthorized devices — enabling them to identify and eliminate potential threats. Healthcare device discovery is also essential for allowing organizations to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities, thereby enabling them to take proactive mitigation measures.
2. Assessing Your Security Posture
Once visibility has been achieved, the second best practice is to assess the security posture of your clinical environment. By conducting a comprehensive enterprise-wide assessment, organizations can understand their current security status and determine potential losses or exposures resulting from a cyberattack. During this step, it is important to involve security professionals, biomedical teams, and clinical engineering teams to ensure that both traditional and connected care workflows are considered, and that healthcare is a priority for all teams across the organization.
3. Implementing Strong Access Controls
Every HDO connected to the Internet is vulnerable to breaches. And unfortunately, in the healthcare sector, there are many reasons why they are prone to attacks. One is that it is common for employees to share their passwords and login credentials with other staff members. HDOs also tend to use outdated systems and hardware — both of which create vulnerabilities in their network security. Without strong access controls, such as multi-factor authentication and role-based access, hackers can gain unrestricted access to sensitive patient data and systems. Implementing access control is one of the most important best practices HDOs can adopt to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive data.
4. Segmenting Devices on the Network
As we have already discussed, there are many different types of devices in an HDOs environment, and new devices are added daily. Beyond the challenge of device discovery, HDOs also struggle to keep these devices properly segmented. Once devices have been located and detailed, it is important to define network policies and enforce controls to ensure that devices are communicating correctly. By obtaining accurate device details, HDOs can establish a baseline of permitted behavior and improve security enforcement, ensuring that you define appropriate policies and enforce controls without disrupting care.
5. Detecting Threats
No healthcare environment is immune to threats. That is why it is so important to identify anomalies and respond to any suspicious communications from medical devices. A recommended practice for accurate threat detection is to gain a precise understanding of manufacturer-intended device behaviors and their clinical workflows. Being able to identify the specific location of a device and provide its current status gives your security team the necessary context to detect threats and respond efficiently.
6. Developing Vulnerability and Risk Management Strategies
The IoMT devices that HDOs rely on carry inherent risks due to software vulnerabilities. And in healthcare environments, device details are often lacking and active device scans cannot be performed regularly, as they have the potential to disrupt patient care and impact outcomes. That is why HDOs require a solution that provides them with visibility into critical device details, to identify what their devices are and what they are doing. This helps organizations understand the risks associated with their devices and how to prioritize remediation. By streamlining vulnerability and risk management, HDOs can understand the extent of their exposure to a specific vulnerability and implement the appropriate remediation strategy.
7. Continuously Optimizing the Strategy
With digital transformation and the rise of the Extended Internet of Things (XIoT), threats to healthcare environments are constantly evolving. That is why we recommend following this best practice to ensure that your connected devices are trustworthy and secure. By continuously improving your cyber and operational resilience, your organization can prepare for, respond to, and recover more effectively from this dynamic threat landscape.
Healthcare organizations need to be able to connect to their environments with confidence — and by following the best practices above, they can accelerate their real-time health initiatives and generate better outcomes for both the business and patients. Establishing strong cybersecurity in healthcare is not an easy task, but implementing a purpose-built cyber-physical systems security solution and a company-wide commitment to cybersecurity can help.