In 2025, healthcare organizations are confronting unprecedented cybersecurity challenges. The integration of operational technology (OT) with traditional IT systems has expanded the attack surface, rendering conventional security measures insufficient. In 2024, the healthcare sector experienced a record-breaking year for data breaches, with over 133 million patient records exposed. The average cost of a healthcare data breach has now reached $11 million, making it the most expensive industry for breaches. Notably, cybercriminals are increasingly targeting medical devices essential for patient care, with ransomware accounting for 71% of all attacks against healthcare organizations, leading to an average downtime of 11 days per incident.
Regulatory Imperatives for Enhanced Security
Recent regulatory updates have intensified the need for robust security controls in healthcare. The updated HIPAA Security Rule, published in December 2024, has eliminated the distinction between addressable and required implementation specifications. Consequently, all security measures, including network segmentation, are now mandatory. Under section 45 CFR 164.312(a)(2)(vi), healthcare organizations must implement technical controls to segment their electronic information systems in a reasonable and appropriate manner. This mandates clear boundaries between operational and IT networks to mitigate risks such as phishing attacks and prevent lateral movement within networks. Additionally, the HHS 405(d) guidelines recommend network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure and protect critical systems and data.
Bridging the Divide Between IT Security and Medical Device Management
A significant challenge in healthcare security is the traditional divide between IT security teams and clinical engineering/biomedical teams responsible for medical devices. Each group operates with distinct priorities and workflows:
– IT Security Teams: Focus on vulnerability management, security policy enforcement, and compliance reporting.
– Clinical Engineering Teams: Prioritize device functionality, patient safety, and medical equipment uptime.
This division creates blind spots in the security posture of healthcare organizations. Medical devices often run proprietary or legacy operating systems that cannot support traditional security agents. Moreover, biomedical teams maintain separate inventory systems that don’t communicate with IT security platforms, leading to visibility gaps for unmanaged devices. Aaron Weismann, Chief Information Security Officer at Main Line Health, highlights this issue:
We have a very difficult time handling non-traditional compute because of not having tooling specifically designed to address and manage those devices. So Elisity really provides a layer of defense and threat mitigation that we wouldn’t otherwise have in our environment.
Implementing Zero Trust Without Network Redesign
To address these challenges, healthcare organizations are turning to automated Zero Trust solutions that do not require extensive network redesigns. Zero Trust is a security framework that assumes no entity—internal or external—should be trusted by default. Every user, device, and application must be continuously authenticated and authorized before accessing resources. Key components of Zero Trust include:
– Identity and Access Management (IAM): Ensures that only authenticated and authorized users can access specific resources.
– Microsegmentation: Divides the network into smaller, isolated segments to contain potential breaches.
– Continuous Monitoring and Analytics: Constantly observes network traffic and user activities to detect and respond to threats in real-time.
– Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Requires users to provide multiple forms of verification to access resources.
By implementing these components, healthcare organizations can enhance their security posture without the need for a complete network overhaul. Automated Zero Trust solutions can dynamically enforce policies based on real-time risk assessments, ensuring that only authorized entities have access to critical systems and data.
Conclusion
As cyber threats targeting healthcare continue to evolve, adopting an automated Zero Trust framework becomes imperative. This approach not only aligns with regulatory requirements but also bridges the gap between IT security and medical device management, providing a comprehensive and efficient security solution without necessitating extensive network redesigns.
