Privacy & Security

Cyberattackers have been shifting to strategies where legitimate tools commonly installed on desktops and servers are abused for malicious purposes. To fight back, knowledge is power.

While he praises the EU's data protection regulations, Eric Sutherland, senior health economist at the OECD, believes policies and standards must "harmonize" to ensure that public health organizations can access health data as needed.

Results from an annual healthcare cybersecurity survey from HIMSS show why healthcare organizations need adaptable security strategies, perhaps including analog file backups, reports Lee Kim, senior principal of cybersecurity and privacy at HIMSS.

Provider organizations first should do the basics, such as following HIPAA security rule compliance and conducting a security risk analysis, advises Carolyn Metnick, partner and Healthcare and Privacy & Cybersecurity team member at Sheppard Mullin.  

All organizations need to define where their cybersecurity risks lie, and consider gaps in threat monitoring, says Steve Cagle, CEO of Clearwater. "It's not just the technology, but it's also the people and the process part of it," he said.  

CIOs, CISOs, CMIOs and CEOs should all be collaborating to strengthen security controls while also enabling clinicians to access the information they need to treat patients, says Dr. Eric Liederman, CEO of CyberSolutionsMD.  

Reflecting on pioneering roles, Christopher Falkner, 2024 HIMSS Changemaker and Sodexo senior director of digital strategy and cybersecurity, talks about his journey from engineer connecting medical devices with EHRs to protecting them.  

When risks of digital disruptions are high, healthcare leaders must build business continuity plans that include holistic data management and security, says Tony Black, global director of healthcare, privacy and digital transformation at Kyndryl.  

Wagner Amaral, growth markets health industry lead at Avanade, talks about how Avanade’s comprehensive set of solutions with embedded security supports collaboration, boosts efficiency and improves patient outcomes across the healthcare ecosystem.