IT Security in Healthcare
Cybersecurity directly affects continuity of care
Hospitals, clinics and laboratories rely on systems that need to remain available around the clock. Electronic medical records, systems supporting hospital operations, diagnostic imaging and laboratories, patient portals, and medical devices all form a complex environment. A disruption can affect patient registration, diagnostics, access to test results, and medical history.
In 2025, CSIRT CeZ handled 1,441 cybersecurity incidents in the healthcare sector. There were 1,028 incidents a year earlier and 435 in 2023. The most frequently reported categories included computer fraud, vulnerable services, credential leaks, and malware infections.
The scale of these threats shows that protecting healthcare organizations should be one of the priorities in managing business continuity and patient safety. Effective protection requires technologies that secure users, devices, networks, data, and applications, as well as processes that make it possible to detect attacks quickly and limit their impact.
At 4Prime, we help hospitals, clinics and laboratories assess risk, implement security controls, monitor their environments around the clock, and respond to incidents.
Key Cyber Threats in Healthcare
A ransomware attack can restrict access to electronic medical records and systems supporting appointment scheduling, hospital operations, diagnostic imaging, and laboratories. File servers and backups may also be affected.
The organization may then have to switch to emergency procedures, often without access to information required by medical staff. This can slow down patient service, disrupt diagnostics, and increase the risk of errors. An attack may also involve data theft, which means its consequences do not end once systems have been restored.
Medical and administrative staff use email, cloud services, and numerous specialist systems. They also work under constant time pressure, which makes effective phishing campaigns easier to carry out.
A compromised account can be used to access medical records, send further malicious messages, install malware, or launch a ransomware attack. Administrator accounts, medical staff accounts, and accounts with access to large volumes of patient records require particular protection.
Medical records contain information whose disclosure may have long-term consequences for patients. Healthcare organizations must protect this data against unauthorized access, copying, and transfer outside the organization.
In laboratories, data integrity is equally important. A test result must remain correctly linked to the patient or sample at every stage: from the analyzer, through the laboratory information system, to the healthcare provider’s system and the final recipient.
Online registration, test result portals, mobile applications, and connections to e-health systems increase the number of services exposed to the Internet. Application flaws, poorly secured data exchange interfaces, or incorrect configuration can lead to data leaks or service outages.
The security of applications and integrations should always be verified before deployment, after major changes, and as part of regular security testing.
Healthcare organizations often operate modern applications and cloud services alongside older systems that have been in use for many years. Some of these systems no longer receive updates or cannot be upgraded quickly because of technological dependencies or vendor requirements.
Internet-facing services, configuration errors, and outdated application components create additional risk. In 2025, vulnerable services were the second most common category of incidents recorded by CSIRT CeZ.
CT scanners, laboratory analyzers, patient monitors, infusion pumps, and other network-connected medical devices require a different approach from standard workstations. Their lifecycle is long, while the ability to update them may depend on the manufacturer and the conditions under which the device is approved for use.
On some devices, standard monitoring software such as EDR cannot be installed. Their protection should therefore rely on understanding network communication, segmentation, traffic monitoring, and restricting connections to only those systems that are necessary.
If administrative workstations, medical systems, diagnostic devices, guest networks, and server infrastructure operate in the same environment, an incident can spread more easily to other systems.
Segmentation limits communication between individual zones. Network monitoring, in turn, makes it possible to detect unusual connections and attempts by an attacker to move laterally through the environment, including on devices where standard endpoint security tools cannot be deployed.
Healthcare organizations rely on software vendors, medical device service providers, integrators, and infrastructure maintenance companies. Some of them require remote access to the organization’s systems.
Permanent access with no time restrictions, shared accounts, or access that does not require additional authentication may become an entry point into the environment. Service sessions should be granted for a defined period, restricted to the required resources, and recorded.
Key Technologies and Processes Supporting IT Security in Healthcare
Your company has fallen victim to a ransomware attack. What now?
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SOC360 analysts
SOC360 is a team of forty highly qualified experts who analyze threats at their source, leveraging telemetry data from advanced EDR and NDR systems as well as other cybersecurity monitoring platforms. Our SOC service, enhanced with Managed Detection and Response (MDR), is based on a single-line model*, ensuring fast and effective incident response.
24/7 infrastructure monitoring based on proactive security systems (EDR, NDR) and SIEM analysis,
Effective alert analysis and real-time incident mitigation,
Threat Intelligence, Threat Hunting, Detection Engineering,
Detailed incident reports compliant with NIS2 requirements,
Vulnerability management,
Operational support during and after a security incident.
*A model that transforms traditional, multi-tiered and hierarchical security teams into a single, efficiently operating team in which all analysts have comparable high-level competencies, uniform training, and access to the same tools.
4Prime engineers
We offer comprehensive solutions by designing, integrating, and maintaining modern security systems. Our engineers have many years of experience implementing tools from over 40 leading vendors, supported by relevant certifications.
