Now more than ever before, our healthcare data is under attack. Of all of the sensitive information available on the dark web, medical records are among the most expensive, costing on average $1,000 – compared to just $1 for a Social Security Number. It’s clear that our healthcare system has become a hot spot for phishing scams, unpatched vulnerabilities, ransomware, and patient data exposures, as most recently evidenced by the Change Healthcare data breach earlier this year. For Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) on the frontlines of the fight, these staggering increases have sent an unequivocal message about the urgent state of data protection in the United States: The time for action is now.
But where do we start? As cyber threats to our healthcare ecosystem reach a critical juncture, CISOs are facing mounting pressure to reimagine data protection and cyber risk practices for the modern era. Even for the most seasoned CISO, this can be seen as a daunting task, requiring careful oversight of HIPAA compliance, IoT medical devices, and distributed data management. One wrong turn and your entire system could be at risk.
With data breaches involving Protected Health Information (PHI) costing nearly $11 million on average, time is of the essence for healthcare CISOs to mitigate cyber risks before they turn into a full-blown crisis. Here are three best practices to keep in mind.
Build a Robust Data Governance Framework
To help manage regulatory compliance and reduce cyber risk, CISOs should begin by regularly updating and reviewing data protection policies from the top down. This also includes regularly running risk assessments to identify and prioritize high-impact vulnerabilities across systems and IoT devices to ensure quicker remediation times. Worse, this past October nearly 5 million individuals were affected by a healthcare data breach due to compromises with network servers, email, and electronic medical records. By embedding agility and consistent vulnerability scanning directly into any data governance framework, CISOs can remain flexible during times of change, and more easily make their case to the Board for updated data security standards as a tool, not a hindrance, with security teams and developers ultimately bringing them to life.
More, CISOs can (and should) consider regularly engaging third-party auditors, who can ensure regulatory adherence from an unbiased perspective. When it comes to sensitive healthcare data, you can never be too careful, so it’s always better to err on the side of safety and prioritize high-risk vulnerabilities rather than pay for the consequences of indifference down the line. At the end of the day, developing a truly robust data governance framework can also enhance data security and create a culture of risk prioritization.
Embrace Next-Gen AI Solutions
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has taken the world by storm in recent years for its ability to revolutionize laborious processes with efficiency in mind. And its impact on healthcare data protection is no exception. In fact, GenAI can play a significant role in addressing cybersecurity concerns in healthcare by providing CISOs with risk articulation, allowing security teams to better understand inbound threats based on location, teams, departments, and assets. These next-gen tools can interact directly with security operations personnel in natural language, enabling them to quickly find relevant data and IP addresses in order to triage red flags and speed up investigations.
Additionally, GenAI can automate traditionally time-intensive ticketing and operational tasks, streamlining remediation and patching processes. In doing so, security teams can spend time doing what they do best: thinking strategically, and innovatively, about how best to protect their company’s data. Of course, it’s no secret that bad actors – especially in the healthcare space – have gotten more elusive in recent years. Equipped with the latest in GenAI technology, however, healthcare CISOs now have an arsenal of tools at their disposal to best them at every turn.
Turn Mistakes into Mastery
Make no mistake: In the world of cybersecurity, there’s strength in numbers, and the mistakes of one CISO can easily be turned into “lessons learned” for another. Accordingly, by breaking down barriers impeding knowledge sharing and promoting cross-collaboration between companies, cybersecurity teams can learn from the past and ensure that they’re adequately prepared for the future. For better or worse, under new SEC guidelines, companies are now required to disclose material cybersecurity incidents they experience, as well as regularly share information regarding their cybersecurity risk management, strategy, and governance. By tapping into this publicly available information, healthcare CISOs can ensure they remain one-step ahead of the curve, applying strategic learnings to reinforce the protection of PHI and personally identifiable information (PII).
Where We Go from Here
Ready or not, large-scale cyberattacks in the healthcare space aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. No longer can cybersecurity teams take a reactionary approach to data protection, simply waiting for risks to appear before acting on them. On the contrary, healthcare CISOs must always be ready for the unexpected, employing (and enforcing) precautionary measures that anticipate potential threats before they happen. By following the steps outlined above, CISOs can create a new cybersecurity playbook for the healthcare sector, ensuring that private healthcare information stays private and protected.
About the Author
Gaurav Banga is the CEO and Founder of Balbix, an AI-powered cybersecurity risk management platform.
