U N D E R T H E M I C R O S C O P E
As health services have implemented digital transformation initiatives to streamline operations with limited budgets , the number of endpoints within organisations continues to increase exponentially . Healthcare is a highly distributed sector , with employees and IT assets spread across offices , buildings and even campuses . This not only makes the job of IT teams more challenging , but also expands the attack surface and window of opportunity for bad actors .
From small primary care practices to large healthcare systems , IT teams often run incredibly lean – at times with one technician managing thousands of endpoints . Having so many endpoints across the network can present challenges when it comes to patching , resulting in both security and compliance issues .
Bad actors regularly target healthcare organisations because of the quantity and sensitivity of the data they hold . Once attackers have access to personal medical information , they can hold it for ransom and sell it on the dark web , or tamper with the data to cause disruption and mistrust within an organisation .
How does the increasing number of endpoints pose a threat to healthcare organisations ?
While necessary to improve the speed and availability of diagnosis and treatment , the increasing number of endpoints in healthcare organisations can also open up more attack vectors for those looking to compromise or abuse the systems assisting in care provision .
With AI and LLMs becoming more accessible , phishing attacks have become increasingly difficult to spot . Untrained staff can be more susceptible to phishing scams , and paired with an increasing number of endpoints , expose organisations to increased risk , making the management and security of endpoints even more challenging .
The implications of a cyber incident in the healthcare sector are huge . They are not only likely to result in huge fines for the responsible parties but can also erode public trust in the sector and put people ’ s data , and even lives , at risk .
What strategies or best practices would you recommend for healthcare organisations looking to enhance their cyber resilience ?
For healthcare IT teams , ensuring endpoint security and creating a frictionless patient-provider relationship will be top priorities . They ’ re expected to effectively manage shared endpoints spread across buildings and sites , while supporting providers and staff at scale with limited resources . This can be a cumbersome task , and one which is only getting harder .
However , IT teams can lean on automated endpoint management solutions to streamline their efforts . Automated endpoint management gives IT teams one central source of truth , providing visibility over the full network in a single pane of glass , displaying maintenance and updates , security and backups , and most critically , a view of all endpoints which could pose a possible risk .
This also allows IT teams to automate processes such as patching and endpoint hardening without having to manually access machines , in turn , simplifying operations and alleviating the pressures of limited access to skills , resource and budget . �
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