Security Magazine logo
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
  • MANAGEMENT
  • PHYSICAL
  • CYBER
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
  • EXCLUSIVES
  • SECTORS
  • EVENTS
  • MEDIA
  • MORE
  • EMAG
  • SIGN UP!
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • NEWS
  • Security Newswire
  • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
  • Leadership Management
  • Enterprise Services
  • Security Education & Training
  • Logical Security
  • Security & Business Resilience
  • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
  • Access Management
  • Fire & Life Safety
  • Identity Management
  • Physical Security
  • Video Surveillance
  • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
  • Cybersecurity News
  • More
  • COLUMNS
  • Cyber Tactics
  • Leadership & Management
  • Security Talk
  • Career Intelligence
  • Leader to Leader
  • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
  • Annual Guarding Report
  • Most Influential People in Security
  • The Security Benchmark Report
  • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
  • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
  • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
  • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
  • Banking/Finance/Insurance
  • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
  • Education: K-12
  • Education: University
  • Government: Federal, State and Local
  • Hospitality & Casinos
  • Hospitals & Medical Centers
  • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
  • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
  • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
  • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
  • Industry Events
  • Webinars
  • Solutions by Sector
  • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Polls
  • Photo Galleries
  • Videos
  • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
  • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
  • MORE
  • Call for Entries
  • Classifieds & Job Listings
  • Continuing Education
  • Newsletter
  • Sponsor Insights
  • Store
  • White Papers
  • EMAG
  • eMagazine
  • This Month's Content
  • Advertise
Security Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Security Magazine logo
  • NEWS
    • Security Newswire
    • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
    • Leadership Management
    • Enterprise Services
    • Security Education & Training
    • Logical Security
    • Security & Business Resilience
    • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
    • Access Management
    • Fire & Life Safety
    • Identity Management
    • Physical Security
    • Video Surveillance
    • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
    • Cybersecurity News
    • More
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
    • Cyber Tactics
    • Leadership & Management
    • Security Talk
    • Career Intelligence
    • Leader to Leader
    • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Annual Guarding Report
    • Most Influential People in Security
    • The Security Benchmark Report
    • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
    • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
    • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
    • Banking/Finance/Insurance
    • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
    • Education: K-12
    • Education: University
    • Government: Federal, State and Local
    • Hospitality & Casinos
    • Hospitals & Medical Centers
    • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
    • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
    • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
    • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars
    • Solutions by Sector
    • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
    • Videos
      • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
      • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
    • Podcasts
    • Polls
    • Photo Galleries
  • MORE
    • Call for Entries
    • Classifieds & Job Listings
    • Continuing Education
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Store
    • White Papers
  • EMAG
    • eMagazine
    • This Month's Content
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!
CybersecurityManagementSecurity Enterprise ServicesSecurity Leadership and ManagementLogical SecuritySecurity & Business ResilienceSecurity Education & TrainingCybersecurity NewsHospitals & Medical Centers

2021 healthcare cybersecurity strategy: Start at the end

By Jim Bowers
data health
October 29, 2020

Healthcare organizations know all too well that the COVID-19 fight isn’t over — not in the clinic, nor in the IT security department.

Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that in 2021, the healthcare industry will suffer two to three times more cyberattacks than the average for other industries. On top of the expanding security threat, multiple sources point to the immense cost of healthcare data breaches. IBM’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report found that healthcare companies are incurring the highest average breach cost of any industry: $7.13 million per incidence, a 10% increase over the 2019 study. 

With the healthcare industry expected to spend $125 billion on cybersecurity from 2020 to 2025, dollars must be spent for maximum efficiency. The question is, how to allocate those funds most effectively at a time when cybercriminals have placed a huge target on hospitals, research labs, pharmaceuticals and insurance carriers.

Organizations need to take a layered approach to security to protect their organizations and sensitive patient data. The smartest approach is to start at the perimeter and work back toward existing enterprise protections – here’s how to do that.

 

Think of endpoints as “start points”

The single most critical issue for security professionals, at a time when work from home is the norm, is endpoint protection and response. Laptops, mobile devices and residential workstations may be commonly referred to as “endpoints”— but in terms of security risk, they are “start points” where threat actors will invariably strike first.

Security professionals must carefully consider the “pandemic effect” on IT practices. Physicians, therapists, nurse practitioners and others are accessing telemedicine from home. Organizations rely on these extended endpoints outside the enterprise firewall, most of which are supported by cloud-based applications and data warehouses.

Phishing scams are a favorite means of gaining access to these endpoints — but the attacks don’t stop there. Internet connections are another point of vulnerability for healthcare organizations. A staffer’s home may seem secure enough, but in security terms it can be an environment that is ripe for threat actors to infiltrate. Criminals have ways to access a huge range of residential IoT devices. Voice assistants, connected home devices, even refrigerators have internet connections these days, making them easy points of entry to penetrate private networks and reach endpoints.

 

Focus on training the remote worker

The ultimate perimeter point is the employee.

Workforce training is vital to IT security, as IBM found that 95% of breaches are caused by human error. A majority of breaches come from an end user clicking on something they shouldn’t — usually a phishing scam which, according to the same IBM report, accounts for 90% of security breaches. This is a primary threat conduit for accessing sensitive information like insurance IDs, social security numbers and passwords.

During a pandemic it’s impossible to get large organizations into a training room — which means organizations need alternatives. One excellent solution is to create and distribute mockups of phishing campaigns. The idea is that if an employee interacts with the phishing mockup, they are redirected to a reinforcement tool, e.g., a short training video.

Anti-phishing campaigns should be run several times throughout the year to keep scams top-of-mind. To the workforce it may sound like a menial priority, but it’s so easy for people to “fast click” on scams. They need to learn to hover their mouse over every link before clicking and evaluate extended URLs for integrity. At the end of the day, organization must change worker behaviors by reinforcing good behaviors and training out bad ones.

 

Increase your value on EDR and MDM

Behavior modification is important, but so is infrastructure. Organizations should invest in a strong endpoint detection and response (EDR) platform to secure their end devices. Free EDR services may be an attractive alternative, but they are often reverse engineered by criminals and can be problematic. A purchased solution can provide stronger protection.

Monitoring and management are other critical elements of protection. Rich EDR data should be fed into a Security Information and Event (SIEM) platform where it can be constantly monitored for possible endpoint intrusion. A tool like SIEM allows data from disparate security solutions to be unified into a single interface to prioritize and triage identified threats, allowing IT staff or managed providers to quickly address and prevent lasting damage.

Mobile Device Management (MDM) platforms have built in security functionality that overlaps and enhances endpoint protection platforms. MDM solutions allow security teams to lock down USB ports on remote laptops, so data can’t be moved to an external drive and beyond the security bubble. They also support geofencing; if a laptop or other mobile device is taken outside a pre-defined geographic area, the organization is alerted and the data on that device can be wiped remotely.

 

Education is the key

2021 is shaping up to be a deeply consequential year for healthcare cybersecurity. If you have the time and resources, a security assessment can be helpful to uncover coverage gaps — but given the current threat environment, assessments shouldn’t be your starting point.

Vulnerability scans can be used to detect and classify system weaknesses in computers, networks and communications equipment and provide ways to remedy the issues. This gives a proactive approach to close any gaps and maintain strong security for systems, data, employees, and customers. A penetration test — known as a pen test or "ethical hacking"— safely identifies and exploits vulnerabilities in appliances, operating systems, services, employees, and applications, to replicate what a hacker could exploit. 

Among the many new vulnerabilities exposed by the global pandemic, none is more troublesome to healthcare IT than cybersecurity. In 2021, it will no longer be a matter of if there will be security breach — but when.

KEYWORDS: cyber security healthcare security risk management

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Jim bowers

Jim Bowers is Security Architect for TBI, a Chicago-based telecommunications master agent. An authority in cybersecurity, Bowers has more than 20 years of in-depth security engineering knowledge gained in finance, healthcare, manufacturing and technology. His expertise ranges from architecting complete security infrastructure, to assessments for vulnerabilities, risk management to phishing training and simulation, DDOS mitigation, endpoint protection and Managed SOC. 

Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
To unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security magazine's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024 award...
    Cybersecurity
    By: Security Staff
  • cyber brain

    The intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is a valuable cybersecurity...
    Security Leadership and Management
    By: Pam Nigro
  • artificial intelligence AI graphic

    Assessing the pros and cons of AI for cybersecurity

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has significant implications...
    Cybersecurity
    By: Charles Denyer
Manage My Account
  • Security eNewsletter & Other eNews Alerts
  • eMagazine Subscriptions
  • Manage My Preferences
  • Online Registration
  • Mobile App
  • Subscription Customer Service

Security’s Top 5 – 2024 Year in Review

Security’s Top 5 – 2024 Year in Review

Middle East Escalation, Humanitarian Law and Disinformation – Episode 25

Middle East Escalation, Humanitarian Law and Disinformation – Episode 25

The Money Laundering Machine: Inside the global crime epidemic - Episode 24

The Money Laundering Machine: Inside the global crime epidemic - Episode 24

More Videos

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content is a special paid section where industry companies provide high quality, objective, non-commercial content around topics of interest to the Security audience. All Sponsored Content is supplied by the advertising company and any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily reflect the views of Security or its parent company, BNP Media. Interested in participating in our Sponsored Content section? Contact your local rep!

close
  • Sureview screen
    Sponsored bySureView Systems

    The Evolution of Automation in the Command Center

  • Crisis Response Team
    Sponsored byEverbridge

    Automate or Fall Behind – Crisis Response at the Speed of Risk

  • Perimeter security
    Sponsored byAMAROK

    Why Property Security is the New Competitive Advantage

Popular Stories

Rendered computer with keyboard

16B Login Credentials Exposed in World’s Largest Data Breach

Verizon on phone screen

61M Records Listed for Sale Online, Allegedly Belong to Verizon

Security’s 2025 Women in Security

Security’s 2025 Women in Security

Red spiderweb

From Retail to Insurance, Scattered Spider Changes Targets

blurry multicolored text on black screen

PowerSchool Education Technology Company Announces Data Breach

2025 Security Benchmark banner

Events

July 17, 2025

Tech in the Jungle: Leveraging Surveillance, Access Control, and Technology in Unique Environments

What do zebras, school groups and high-tech surveillance have in common? They're all part of a day’s work for the security team at the Toledo Zoo.

August 7, 2025

Threats to the Energy Sector: Implications for Corporate and National Security

The energy sector has found itself in the crosshairs of virtually every bad actor on the global stage.

View All Submit An Event

Products

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

See More Products

Related Articles

  • cyber-security-freepik1170x658x697.jpg

    The new narrative: Cybersecurity in 2022

    See More
  • remote work/hybrid freepik

    Security implications of a hybrid workplace

    See More
  • The Long and Winding Road to Cyber Recovery

    Security from the Start: Why Cyber Awareness is Critical at the Initial Stages of Business

    See More

Related Products

See More Products
  • 9780367339456.jpg.jpg.jpg

    Cyber Strategy: Risk-Driven Security and Resiliency

  • databasehacker

    The Database Hacker's Handboo

  • 9780367030407.jpg

    National Security, Personal Privacy and the Law

See More Products
×

Sign-up to receive top management & result-driven techniques in the industry.

Join over 20,000+ industry leaders who receive our premium content.

SIGN UP TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Store
    • Want More
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletter
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing

Security Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Security Magazine logo
  • NEWS
    • Security Newswire
    • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
    • Leadership Management
    • Enterprise Services
    • Security Education & Training
    • Logical Security
    • Security & Business Resilience
    • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
    • Access Management
    • Fire & Life Safety
    • Identity Management
    • Physical Security
    • Video Surveillance
    • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
    • Cybersecurity News
    • More
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
    • Cyber Tactics
    • Leadership & Management
    • Security Talk
    • Career Intelligence
    • Leader to Leader
    • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Annual Guarding Report
    • Most Influential People in Security
    • The Security Benchmark Report
    • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
    • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
    • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
    • Banking/Finance/Insurance
    • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
    • Education: K-12
    • Education: University
    • Government: Federal, State and Local
    • Hospitality & Casinos
    • Hospitals & Medical Centers
    • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
    • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
    • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
    • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars
    • Solutions by Sector
    • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
    • Videos
      • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
      • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
    • Podcasts
    • Polls
    • Photo Galleries
  • MORE
    • Call for Entries
    • Classifieds & Job Listings
    • Continuing Education
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Store
    • White Papers
  • EMAG
    • eMagazine
    • This Month's Content
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!