Malicious actors are ramping up exploitation efforts with technology that has the potential to be more destructive than ever, introducing new risks and intensifying existing ones as they learn from their unfortunate successes. Executive leaders of healthcare are vigilant about ensuring defenses are robust enough to balance the daily risks threat actors and staff education gaps pose to the care of patients. Digital transformation, the interoperability of solutions, and hybrid environments that support them create incredible complexities at a time when the skills to ensure the strongest defense are often inaccessible. Organizations are forced to think in terms of not if, but when they will face a cybersecurity challenge.
How can security advisors help?
Given these circumstances and the growing advantages of malicious actors, healthcare leadership teams are turning to expert healthcare IT and cybersecurity advisors to vet their plans and advise on how to strengthen them. The best defense strategies combine steps to ensure their own organization has keen understanding of their environment, overall risk profile, and mitigation strategies with the experience of experts in the specifics of healthcare to master contextual understanding in three key areas within healthcare:
- General and Specific Threat Intelligence
- Digital Transformation and Modernization
- Regulatory and Compliance
When can security advisors help?
The best time to focus on healthcare networks and challenges is, of course, prior to a serious incident. Augmenting your organization’s knowledge with perspective and fresh eyes of industry experts in the midst of a concerning threat or debilitating incident is practically required. Additional experts can bring knowledge and capacity to face the situation as a united front with authority and presence to navigate a variety of business and clinical problems that can result.
Working with a partner before an urgent situation has occurred at your organization means working together to strengthen or build defense strategies – human and technical – to help reduce the likelihood of cybersecurity incidents and ensure the safety of patient data and the organization’s reputation.
Is it time to involve a security advisor?
It’s likely you have a list of security-related priorities and the dilemma may lie in determining which to address first. Use these questions to help evaluate your current state and options for prioritizing work related to information security at your organization:
- Is your organization aware of the specific and targeted cybersecurity threat intelligence unique to your organization? What about a deeper threat analysis of what makes your healthcare organization a high value target attractive for threat agents and steps required to reduce your organization's attack surface today? Specified threat intelligence and analysis tailored to your organization’s business profile empowers network defenders with the information required to assist in the reduction of the likelihood of a ransomware attack.
- As a healthcare IT executive, do your days end with a sense of exhaustion and a feeling that you are constantly in reactionary mode wondering if you'll ever get ahead of the stove pipes and lack of internal communication? Other organizations have gained greater synchronization of their IT Operations, improved efficiency and effectiveness so they can become less reactive and more proactive in their IT oversight with our Cybersecurity Advisory Services.
- Does your organization have dedicated leadership - a full-time, in-house Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)? Organizations of a certain size and complexity require a dedicated security officer. Other organizations find a CISO-as-a-Service model works with their budget and their priorities.
- Are your policies current and adopted by the people of your organization? Widespread adoption of comprehensive policies helps fortify your human firewall with customized education for regulatory compliance, mitigating risks, and fostering a culture of enhanced security awareness.
- What are the actions taken as a result of your organization’s most recent information security risk assessment? Challenging your implementation with risk assessments that inform corrective actions can go far to safeguard your digital assets and assure organizational readiness.
- Haven’t conducted a risk assessment in the last year or more? It’s important to be aware of where your defenses are, where they need to be, and the path to get to your most defensible environment.
If you’re ready to take steps to enhance the security culture at your organization or if you need CISO influence within budget, please contact us and gain access to the insight you need to shape your organization’s information security strategy.
