Healthcare in the Cloud: Why Exposure Validation is Essential for Protecting Patient Data 

According to the HIPPA Journal, 2024 saw 82 percent of the United States population have their medical records exposed, stolen or impermissibly disclosed. When you walk into a healthcare facility you expect your protected health information (PHI) and your personally identifiable information (PII) to be kept safe and secure without risk of being exposed to the world. Except this doesn’t always happen.  

With a shocking number like that, the healthcare industry is undergoing a monumental transformation with digital tools and cloud technology, modernizing the way medical records, patient information and services are delivered.  

The shift towards cloud-based healthcare systems improves accessibility, efficiency and collaboration, however, there remains challenges with any technology. Protecting patient data through the guidance of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is no longer enough. This is where exposure validation becomes an essential and vital part of an organization’s security strategy in protecting sensitive information. 

Why Cloud Security is Critical in Healthcare 

Cybercriminals are motivated by many things, but when it comes to dealing with life or death, it quickly creates extra motivation and incentive. Healthcare providers are often more likely to pay a ransom to get their systems back online. For example, Cyber Magazine reported that Change Healthcare admitted to paying a $22 million ransom to hackers in the midst of their targeted attack.  

Patient data is a highly valuable asset, including PHI and insurance details that cybercriminals can then use to steal identities, commit fraud or launch attacks on larger scales. Cloud computing introduces complex vulnerabilities that a security breach could result in catastrophic consequences for both patients and healthcare providers. Examples include: 

Ransomware and data breaches

Due to the immense volume of data that flows through healthcare systems at any given, ransomware and data breaches could happen at any time. These breaches often lead to the unauthorized exposure of personal health records (PHR), PHI and PII. Through phishing attacks, malicious malware or exploiting vulnerabilities, hackers put healthcare providers and facilities in precarious positions by having to pay ransoms or lose hard-earned trust and reputations.  

Regulatory concerns

Protecting patient data and privacy and ensuring that data is managed in a secure fashion is not only an expectation but a legal obligation in healthcare. Regulations like HIPAA and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) mandate how organizations store, move and protect patient data. This is extremely prevalent in cloud-based systems, where healthcare organizations should be investing in secure cloud systems, backup solutions and breach detection protocols to ensure they are meeting all required regulatory standards. Because if they were to ever be found in non-compliance, they could be hit with significant fines and suffer serious reputational damage.  

Impact of EHRs, telemedicine and IoT medical devices

New technologies can serve as a major catalyst for change and risk in any industry, but in healthcare especially, they pose as both and need to be managed accordingly. Advances such as electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine and IoT medical devices have seen a significant increase in usage throughout the healthcare industry due to their added efficiencies. These latest technologies have risks that must be managed.  

• When it comes to managing EHRs, cloud providers must ensure that data encryptions, secure access controls and regular audits are in place to prevent any unauthorized access. 
• Telemedicine opened the door to help providers conduct care virtually, markedly improving accessibility, while also enabling threat actor’s opportunities to hack these cloud-based platforms. Providers that accommodate telemedicine must ensure that their platforms are protected with robust encryption, secure communication protocols and multi-factor authentication (MFA).  
• IoT medical devices have made a major impact, items like smart wearables, remote patient monitoring tools that can be tracked in real-time can all be hacked and impacted in a life-or-death scenario. Most of the data from these devices are stored in the cloud, creating a highly vulnerable situation if not managed proactively and securely. Healthcare organization must take the necessary steps to ensure that both the devices they offer and their cloud-based storage are thoroughly protected against cyberattacks.  

5 Essential Healthcare Cloud Security Measures 

In order to secure healthcare systems, there are a wide variety of cloud-based security measures available that must be in place. These include some of the following: 

1. Data encryption: Data should always be encrypted both in transit and at rest. Encryption ensures that even if data is intercepted, it cannot be read or exploited by unauthorized parties. 
2. Identity and Access Management (IAM): IAM systems authenticate and authorize users to ensure that only authorized personnel can access patient records and sensitive data. This also includes multi-factor authentication (MFA) to strengthen security. 
3. Network security: Firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and intrusion prevention systems (IPS) help protect healthcare networks from cyber threats, including malware and ransomware attacks. 
4. Compliance monitoring: Healthcare organizations must adhere to regulatory frameworks like HIPAA, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and others. Cloud security solutions often include built-in compliance features that help ensure healthcare data meets legal standards. 
5. Backup and disaster recovery: Regular backups and disaster recovery plans are critical in the event of a system failure, natural disaster, or cyber-attack. Cloud providers often offer redundant systems and geo-distributed data storage to ensure availability. 

5 Major Healthcare Cloud Security Threats

Although cloud security comes with many advantages, it still poses challenges and risks to organizations of any maturity level, including: 

1. Ransomware attacks: Cybercriminals target healthcare organizations with malware that encrypts sensitive data, demanding a ransom for its release. Healthcare organizations are particularly vulnerable due to the urgency of accessing medical records for patient care. 
2. Insider threats: Healthcare workers with malicious intent or negligent behavior can unintentionally expose sensitive data or intentionally leak information for personal gain. 
3. Phishing attacks: Attackers use phishing emails to trick healthcare staff into divulging login credentials, enabling unauthorized access to cloud-based systems. 
4. Misconfigurations: Incorrectly configured cloud systems can leave sensitive data exposed. For example, cloud storage misconfigurations can result in publicly accessible patient records. 
5. Advanced Persistent Threats (APT): APTs involve cybercriminals establishing long-term access to a network with the goal of stealing valuable data over time. These threats often evade traditional security measures. 

How the Cymulate Exposure Validation Platform Strengthens Healthcare Cloud Security 

There is no doubt that cyber threats are evolving at a pace that must be matched by all types of organizations, but especially ones that have our health in their hands. Healthcare organizations need more than traditional security measures to keep our PHI secure. Exposure validation is a critical and vital component of a holistic cloud security strategy, ensuring that potential vulnerabilities are proactively identified and mitigated.  

The Cymulate Exposure Validation Platform can help strengthen the security posture of a healthcare organization in the following five ways: 

• Continuous security testing: The Cymulate platform performs continuous testing to assess cloud security posture and by simulating real-world attack scenarios, healthcare providers can identify vulnerabilities before they are exploited. 
• Simulated phishing campaigns: We can simulate a real-life phishing attack and how employees respond to help educate and train staff on best security practices, reducing the risk of human error. 
• Identifying misconfigurations: With the Cymulate exposure validation platform, check for commonly misconfigured cloud systems across the entire infrastructure, ensuring that sensitive patient data remains protected. 
• End-to-End risk assessment: Gain a complete risk assessment, highlighting potential threats, whether they come from insiders, outsiders or system failures. This helps organizations prioritize security measures based on potential impact and what steps to take first. 
• Incident response preparation: Cymulate can help healthcare organizations assess the effectiveness of their incident response plans by simulating a variety of attack scenarios. This will enable security teams to practice their response to a cyber-attack and refine their processes to ensure they are well prepared in the case of a real-life incident. 

Key Takeaways 

As the healthcare sector continues to adopt and embrace the benefits of cloud computing, protecting patient data must remain a top priority. Cloud security is taking proactive steps to identify and validate vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, and exposure validation is a necessary component of the overall security strategy. Including exposure validation offers organizations a clear and holistic view of potential risks from misconfigurations to insider threats.  

Through the Cymulate Exposure Validation Platform, healthcare organizations will be empowered to stay steps ahead of a motivated adversary, ensuring that critical patient data is safe. Healthcare providers can remain safe and resilient by continuously assessing and testing security measures in their secure cloud infrastructure that protects both their patients and their reputations. When all it takes is data breach to have potentially life or death consequences, exposure validation is the key to making sure that cloud security is not just reliable but effective.