Healthcare isn’t just digitised. It’s interconnected, remote-enabled, and data-heavy. From telemedicine and cloud-based Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to AI diagnostics and smart infusion pumps, healthcare environments now rival the complexity of global enterprise networks.
But there’s a critical difference.
In banking, a breach costs money.
In healthcare, a breach can cost lives.
It’s no longer acceptable to treat cybersecurity as a technical layer buried under infrastructure. It’s now a patient safety issue. A business continuity issue. A reputational risk issue. And most urgently, a leadership responsibility.
Cyber hygiene in healthcare has evolved. It’s no longer about firewalls and compliance checklists. It’s about managing a dynamic, high-risk ecosystem of Internet-connected medical devices, third-party platforms, human workflows, and always-on digital systems.
Let’s dive into the new threat landscape and explore why Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is fast becoming a foundational layer of modern healthcare security.
The Healthcare Threat Surface Has Changed
There was a time when healthcare networks were segmented and contained. Patient data was stored locally. Devices were not IP-enabled. Access was tightly controlled by on-premise credentials.
That time is gone.
Today’s healthcare stack includes:
· Cloud-hosted EHR systems
· Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)devices transmitting real-time telemetry
· Mobile apps used by physicians and nurses
· Virtual care platforms and remote diagnostics
· Third-party integrations with labs, pharmacies, and insurers
· Shared workstations used by rotating staff
· Research data transfers across departments and borders
The result is a vastly expanded and decentralised threat surface. Attackers know it too.
Cyber incidents targeting healthcare increased by over 60% in the past two years. Ransomware groups now specifically target hospitals and clinics, knowing downtime means delayed surgeries, compromised care, and instant pressure to pay.
This is no longer just an IT problem.This is a healthcare delivery risk.
Why Traditional Security Postures AreNot Enough
Most healthcare organisations stillapproach cybersecurity like they did five or ten years ago. Their defences areheavily reliant on static tools:
· Firewalls at the perimeter
· Anti-virus on endpoints
· Scheduled patching cycles
· Basic user access controls
But here’s the uncomfortable truth:attackers don’t care about your perimeter. They’re getting in throughoverlooked vectors that these traditional tools don’t cover.
For example:
· A misconfigured EHR API that leakspatient data during sync
· An IoMT device communicating over aninsecure protocol
· A nurse clicking on a phishing link ina shift handover email
· A lab technician sharing patient scansvia a cloud service that bypasses audit controls
· A contractor’s credentials beingreused across multiple facilities
None of these tactics are stopped by afirewall or caught by antivirus. Yet all of them are increasingly common anddevastating.
If you don’t have behaviouralvisibility, identity-aware monitoring, and real-time detection, you are flyingblind.
The Rise of IoMT: Critical and Risky
Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) isthe collective term for connected medical devices that range from insulin pumpsand smart IV drips to heart monitors and imaging machines. These devices arevital for patient care. They also introduce risk.
Here’s why:
· Many run outdated or proprietary firmware
· Patching schedules are irregular or non-existent
· Default passwords are still alarmingly common
· Devices are often networked together without segmentation
· They operate 24/7, so taking themoffline for updates is rarely feasible
A compromised IV pump isn’t just adata leak. It’s a patient safety incident. And yet, many security teams lackvisibility into these devices’ communications, firmware status, or access logs.
IoMT is not a future problem. It ishere, it is complex, and it is already a high-value target for attackers.
EHR Misconfigurations: Silent andDangerous
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) arethe operational backbone of modern healthcare. But they are also frequentlymisconfigured.
Common issues include:
· Improper role-based access, allowingusers to access more data than necessary
· APIs exposed without authentication
· Insecure data storage withinthird-party applications
· Lack of proper logging or monitoring on audit trails
· Open ports or services left exposed on the cloud
These gaps are not always the result of malice. Often, they are the result of speed. Healthcare providers move quickly to onboard new systems, support remote access, and enable clinician productivity.
But security doesn’t always keep up. And when a misconfiguration exists, attackers don’t need to break in—they simply walk through the gaps.
Internal Habits: The Human Attack Surface
The human element is the mostoverlooked vulnerability in healthcare environments.
Security teams can deploy all theright tools, but it only takes one mistake to compromise an entire system.
For example:
· A nurse using their personal Gmail totransfer work documents
· A doctor accessing EHRs over publicWi-Fi while travelling
· A shared workstation left unlockedduring a busy shift
· Passwords written on sticky notes in staffrooms
· Admin credentials stored inspreadsheets for “team convenience”
These behaviours aren’t rare. They’resystemic. And they cannot be solved by policy documents alone.
Without continuous monitoring,real-time detection, and contextual alerting, these threats go unnoticed untildamage is already done.
Full-Spectrum Visibility Without the Overhead
Managed Detection and Response (MDR)is not a tool. It’s a service layer that brings together technology, threatintelligence, human expertise, and real-time action.
In healthcare, MDR is uniquelypositioned to handle the operational complexity and resource constraints thatCISOs face.
Here’s what it provides:
1. 24/7 Monitoring
Healthcare isalways-on. Threat detection must be too. MDR solutions monitor endpoints,networks, cloud workloads, and IoMT devices around the clock.
2. Behaviour-Based Detection
Instead of relyingon known malware signatures, MDR uses behavioural analytics to detect anomaliesin user, device, and application behaviour. This is crucial in healthcare,where attacks often blend into normal activity.
3. Identity Awareness
MDR tracks accesspatterns across users, departments, and systems. If a staff member logs in fromtwo countries within minutes, or a junior staff account accesses a restricteddataset, it’s flagged instantly.
4. Incident Response Support
When an incidentoccurs, time is everything. MDR providers guide or execute containmentstrategies immediately—whether that means isolating a device, revoking access,or blocking malicious IPs.
5. Threat Intelligence Integration
MDR providers stayupdated on the latest threat actor tactics, techniques, and procedures. Thisintelligence is continuously fed into detection logic, improving effectivenessin a constantly changing landscape.
6. Resource Efficiency
Many healthcare security teams are small. MDR acts as an extension of your team, delivering enterprise-grade detection and response without requiring you to hire and traina full SOC.
How MDR Covers What Point Solutions Miss
Consider the average security stack in a mid-sized hospital:
· Endpoint protection
· Firewall
· Email filter
· SIEM
· Access management
These tools are valuable. But they operate in isolation.
MDR pulls everything together. It creates a single view of activity across systems and correlates events that would otherwise be missed.
For example:
· An endpoint detects a new process launching
· The EHR logs a spike in data exportsfrom that same endpoint
· Network traffic shows connections toan IP previously linked to ransomware attacks
Individually, none of these mighttrigger action. But correlated together, MDR identifies this as a breach inprogress and initiates containment.
This is where MDR earns its keep. By seeing the full picture, it turns noise into signal and risk into response.
MDR in Practice for a Healthcare Breach Scenario
Let’s walk through a typical example:
A radiology department connects a new third-party diagnostic system to their local network. It’s a closed-box system,installed by a vendor, not fully documented by internal IT.
Unknown to the staff, the system hasan exposed admin interface with default credentials. It gets discovered andcompromised by an attacker scanning for such vulnerabilities.
From there:
· The attacker moves laterally to anadjacent file server
· Exfiltrates imaging data
· Drops ransomware that beginsencrypting patient files
Without MDR, this breach may not bedetected until staff report missing files. By then, systems are locked, backupsmay be compromised, and patient care is disrupted.
With MDR:
· The lateral movement is flagged asanomalous
· The connection to a known malicious IPis blocked
· The suspicious behaviour of thethird-party system is contained
· The ransomware activity is halted before encryption completes
Response is fast. Containment is surgical. Impact is minimised.
This is the difference between chaosand control.
Overcoming Barriers to Adoption
Many healthcare leaders hesitate to adopt MDR due to perceived complexity or cost. But this mindset is changing, especially as the cost of inaction becomes clearer.
Here’s how to shift perspective:
1. Cost Framing
MDR is not an expense. It’s risk transfer. A ransomware incident can cost millions in downtime, recovery, and reputation loss. MDR prevents that.
2. Operational Fit
MDR works withyour existing tools. It doesn’t replace them. It adds the missing piece:real-time correlation and response.
3. Compliance Leverage
HIPAA, GDPR, andother regulations increasingly expect real-time detection and breachcontainment. MDR supports audit readiness and reporting.
4. Executive Communication
CISOs shouldposition MDR as a resilience investment. Not just for data protection, but forclinical continuity, staff productivity, and patient safety.
When framed correctly, MDR becomes notonly acceptable, but essential.
What Healthcare Leaders Should Do Next
If you’re a CISO, CTO, or executive inhealthcare, here’s how to move forward:
· Start with an exposure audit.Understand where your IoMT, EHR, and human workflows intersect—and wherevisibility is weakest.
· Identify blind spots in your current detection and response posture. This includes after-hours coverage, insider activity, and third-party integrations.
· Evaluate MDR providers with healthcare-specific experience. Ask how they handle protected health information, and what response SLAs they guarantee.
· Simulate an incident. Walk through what happens if a field nurse’s tablet is compromised. How fast can your current team detect and respond?
· Integrate MDR into your security stack as a central coordination layer. Let it enhance, not replace, your existing tools.
Remember, the question isn’t whether a breach will happen. The question is how fast you’ll know, how effectively you’ll respond, and how minimal the damage will be.
Clean Systems Save Lives
Cyber hygiene in healthcare is notjust about clean code, locked-down devices, and enforced policies. It’s aboutkeeping systems safe so that care can continue.
When EHRs crash, care slows down.
When devices gethijacked, patients are put at risk.
When data leaks,trust erodes.
As healthcare becomes more digital,its security must become more dynamic.
MDR is not just a solution. It’s theconnective tissue that gives healthcare organisations the clarity, context, andconfidence to operate securely in an increasingly hostile digital world.
Cybersecurity isn’t just IT’s jobanymore. It’s everyone’s responsibility. But with MDR, it doesn’t have tobecome everyone’s burden.