Prioritizing Cybersecurity in Healthcare as a Measure of Patient Safety
Cybersecurity in healthcare has entered a new era. Threats have become more frequent, more sophisticated and more intertwined with patient care than ever before.
When a successful cyberattack happens, the hidden costs of operational disruption and delayed treatment can pile up and have a significant impact on patient care and safety. A cyberattack on a healthcare organization today isn’t just a breach, it’s an impediment to care with severe real-world consequences.
In the first quarter of this year, organizations in North America faced an average of 1,357 cyberattacks per week, according to Check Point Research. Globally, that number was 1,925 attacks per week. Healthcare is the second-most-targeted industry in the U.S. and the top industry impacted by ransomware attacks worldwide.
But here’s the truth healthcare leaders need to hear: Resilience is within reach.
If the industry can shift from reactive defense to proactive prevention, we can protect not just systems but the people we serve.
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When a ransomware attack hampers a hospital’s electronic health records, the ripple effects are immediate and potentially life-threatening with diagnostic delays, canceled procedures and disrupted prescriptions. Every second counts in patient care, and digital access is now inseparable from care delivery.
We’ve long understood this urgency in clinical medicine. We monitor vitals, flag early symptoms and intervene before a condition worsens. Now, it’s time to treat cybersecurity the same way.
Cyber risk is no longer just an IT issue: It’s a core patient safety concern. That reframing must start at the top, with boards, CEOs and clinical leaders treating cyber-resilience as part of operational readiness rather than a line item on a technology budget.
DISCOVER: A robust cyber resilience plan can mitigate hospital downtime.
Organizations Must Choose Threat Prevention Over PanicBeing resilient doesn't mean being invincible. It means being aware and prepared. To make prevention actionable, healthcare organizations must:
- Implement continuous threat monitoring. Security professionals must practice around-the-clock monitoring, with visibility into their environment and automated response in place. In 2025, this is essential to maintaining resilience. Cyberattacks don’t wait for business hours, and neither can your defenses.
- Redefine trust at every access point. In a world of remote clinicians, connected devices and third-party partners, assume no one (and no device) is trusted by default. Identity is the new perimeter. Zero-trust security is the way to make this a reality.
- Exercise real-world tabletop drills: Don’t wait for a crisis to test your response plan. Simulate realistic, clinical-impact scenarios, such as an attack during peak emergency department volume, as a stress test of your organization’s readiness. Practice, refine and repeat.
Prevention also requires embedding cybersecurity into transformation initiatives. As health systems embrace cloud migration, generative artificial intelligence in diagnostics and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based interoperability, the security function must be present at the planning table, not invited after the fact.
LEARN MORE: How does zero trust support cyber resilience for healthcare organizations?
Cybersecurity Is an Integrated Strategy, Not Just a Tool StackHealthcare is a mission-driven industry. Cybersecurity must be mission-aligned. CISOs and security leaders need to speak the language of business and clinical operations, not just firewalls and endpoints.
Cyber strategy plays a more elevated role in:
- Mergers and acquisitions. Cyber hygiene must be part of due diligence, especially as consolidation accelerates.
- Innovation roadmaps. Whether deploying an AI assistant for clinicians or scaling virtual care, cybersecurity should be an embedded control, not a compliance afterthought.
- Workforce culture. Human error is still a top risk factor. Ongoing training, phishing simulations and shared accountability can build a culture of digital safety and are more critical than ever to maintaining patient safety.
Board members and C-suite executives don’t need to become cybersecurity experts, but they do need to ask the right questions, which include:
- How well are we positioned to prevent, detect and respond to cyberthreats?
- What’s our incident response plan? How often do we test and update it?
- Are we investing in cybersecurity at a level that reflects our risk?
The answers to these questions should be specific, communicated to key stakeholders, rehearsed and understood across the organization.
EXLORE: Why is cyber incident response essential to your resilience strategy?
Cybersecurity Is the Standard of CareCyberthreats are evolving. But so is healthcare and our capacity to meet the moment.
We’ve already proved we can drive digital transformation with speed and scale. From pandemic-era telehealth rollouts to AI-powered triage tools, healthcare organizations know how to innovate under pressure.
Now, we must channel that same urgency into security. Prioritizing prevention doesn’t just save time, money or reputation, it also protects people. It preserves trust. It ensures continuity of care when it matters most.
With threats to healthcare spiking and showing no signs of slowing, security is mission-critical. In healthcare, cybersecurity isn’t a business function, it’s a clinical obligation.
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