Healthcare organizations face increasing cybersecurity threats as they transition to digital systems and networks. Proper cyber risk management is critical for hospitals to safeguard patient data, maintain operations, and earn patient trust. This involves understanding threat trends, implementing prevention and detection strategies, and responding effectively to cyberattacks. Key strategies for healthcare include shifting to a proactive security model, investing in attack surface monitoring solutions, and keeping cybersecurity infrastructure up-to-date through ongoing patching and upgrades. With the right risk management approach, healthcare can enhance system resilience and better protect patients and care delivery from evolving cyberattacks.

1. How to Handle Cyber Risk Management in
Healthcare
Healthcare organizations face an increasing threat from cyberattacks as they transition to digital systems
and networks. Proper cyber risk management is now critical for hospitals and clinics to safeguard patient
data, maintain operations and earn patient trust. This begins with understanding trends in healthcare
cybersecurity threats and implementing effective strategies for prevention, detection, and response.
From shifting to a proactive security model to keeping security tools up-to-date, there are several best
practices healthcare leaders can adopt to enhance their cyber defenses.

2. Understanding the rise and effects of cyberattacks on healthcare
Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations have been steadily increasing in both frequency and
sophistication. Here are some key points to understand the issue:
• Healthcare data is very sensitive and valuable. Patient records contain a treasure trove
of personal information. It includes names, addresses, social security numbers, insurance
details, medical histories, and test results. This makes healthcare a lucrative target for
cybercriminals.
• Healthcare networks are expanding digitally. The shift to electronic medical records, connected
medical devices, and telehealth are expanding the attack surface for hackers.

3. • Cyberattacks can have devastating consequences. Data breaches cause reputational
damage, non-compliance fines, and loss of patient trust. Ransomware attacks can completely
paralyze hospitals, forcing ambulance diversions and cancellation of procedures.
• Financial costs of cyberattacks are high. Data breaches and ransomware attacks can cost
healthcare organizations millions. This cost includes legal services, breach notifications, credit
monitoring, forensic investigations, IT recovery efforts, and lost revenue.
• Patient safety can be at risk. In some cases, cyberattacks have directly endangered patient
health.
The rise in cyberattacks demonstrates the need for proactive cyber risk management strategies in
healthcare. Strong defenses, employee training, and incident response planning are now essential for all
healthcare organizations to safeguard patient safety, business operations, and sensitive data.
The best strategies for cyber risk management in healthcare
Here are some of the best strategies for cyber risk management in healthcare:
Shifting the cybersecurity strategy
For healthcare organizations, shifting to a proactive cybersecurity strategy from a reactive one is
imperative. This involves moving away from simply dealing with problems after they happen toward
preventing threats before they cause harm. Healthcare must adopt a security posture that is risk-based
and threat-focused.
Several key elements are required for this shift:
● Embracing a security mindset across the organization where cyber risk mitigation is a strategic
priority, Investing in robust prevention controls. It includes firewalls, endpoint detection tools,
and AI-assisted threat hunting.
● Implementing a vulnerability management program to identify weaknesses early.
● Conduct regular risk assessments to determine where risks are greatest and resources should be
allocated.
● Developing employee security awareness training to influence behaviors that reduce risk.
● Employing techniques like red team attacks to identify weaknesses from an attacker's
perspective.
This proactive strategy also means automating threat detection analytics wherever possible using tools
that continuously monitor activity across the entire network, users, and endpoints. The goal should be
establishing security controls that block known threats, detect suspicious activity, and respond rapidly to
contain incidents before they become disastrous data breaches or disruptions.
Investing in attack surface monitoring solutions
Healthcare organizations must invest in continuous attack surface monitoring solutions to gain the level
of visibility needed for proactive cyber risk management. Attack surface monitoring tools scan internal

4. and external facing assets, users, and network traffic to identify weaknesses that could be exploited by
attackers.
By constantly monitoring the entire healthcare network, these solutions can detect compromised
or suspicious devices, unauthorized applications, malware infections, anomalous user behavior, and
unauthorized access. They work by establishing a detailed inventory of all devices, systems, and software
within the network and then continuously comparing activity against that baseline. Any changes,
outliers, or abnormalities are flagged as potential threats to investigate. Using this method, attack
surface monitoring can also uncover vulnerabilities and infected systems long before they are actively
used by hackers to breach data.
Given the speed of modern cyberattacks, such early detection is critical to respond in time to prevent
damage. Therefore, healthcare organizations must also allocate appropriate resources toward
implementing attack surface monitoring tools. These tools should also incorporate network traffic
analysis, user behavioral analytics, device and application controls, endpoint detection and response
capabilities, and vulnerability management.
Keeping the cybersecurity infrastructure up-to-date
One of the most important yet underrated aspects of cyber risk management for healthcare systems is
ensuring all technology and software remain up-to-date and patched against known vulnerabilities.
Outdated systems and applications are prime targets for hackers because they often have
well-documented weaknesses that have not been fixed. Keeping cybersecurity infrastructure up-to-date
requires a comprehensive patching and upgrade program. It also incorporates frequent vulnerability
scans, change management processes, and budget allocation for renewals.
Healthcare IT departments must institute policies mandating the immediate installation of security
patches as they become available. They should perform regular reviews of all devices, applications, and
platforms to identify those in need of system upgrades. This includes medical equipment, clinical
devices, monitoring tools, operating systems, databases, firewalls, antivirus software, and more. IT must
also then prioritize upgrades based on risk level, starting with systems that store or transmit sensitive
data.
Department leadership should also ensure adequate funding is devoted to renewing expiring security
solutions and replacing obsolete infrastructure on a set replacement cycle. By taking a proactive,
meticulous approach to assessing technology status, planning upgrades, and installing patches,
healthcare networks can remain protected against the latest threats targeting known vulnerabilities in
outdated software and systems.
Conclusion
Cyber risk management requires a holistic and vigilant approach for healthcare organizations. Leaders
must make security a strategic priority, invest appropriately in the right tools and solutions, and build a
culture of security awareness. While no organization can be completely safe from cyber threats,
proactive measures and continual improvements to people, processes, and technologies can help
minimize risk exposure and impact.

5. With the right strategies in place, healthcare providers can enhance the resilience of their systems and
data to better protect patients and care delivery from evolving cyberattacks. Cyber risk management
must be an ongoing process of assessment, mitigation, and adaptation to keep pace with
today's dynamic threat landscape.