Fortified has a new webinar that explores why Vulnerability Threat Management (VTM) in the healthcare space is too important to be conducted haphazardly. It’s critical to find a tool that lets you prioritize vulnerabilities, spot trends instantly, and quickly filter by vulnerability type and severity.
The Reality of Vulnerability Overload
Without such a tool, managing vulnerability threats is a daunting task. Here’s what healthcare organizations are currently facing:
Scanners routinely find thousands of vulnerabilities across a typical healthcare environment – weaknesses in software, firmware, or configuration on the IT, clinical, or OT systems. They’re usually prioritized by asset type and Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) scores, which assess vulnerability severity on a 0-to-10 scale.
The scanner reports create lengthy “to fix” lists that compete with patient care and maintenance windows.
Why CISA KEVs Must Drive Patching Priorities
CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEVs) catalog contains vulnerabilities that the agency has confirmed are being actively exploited. KEVs should be at the top of your patching and mitigation queues because they help your team focus its limited time on vulnerabilities, most likely to lead to an incident.
What the Data Reveals About Healthcare’s VTM Gap
Here are some sobering statistics on the VTM landscape in healthcare today:
- 99% of healthcare organizations have at least one device containing a CISA KEV in their environment.
- 50% of organizations are investing in vulnerability tools, yet remediation across OT and clinical environments can still take weeks.
- 96% of hospitals have end-of-life operating systems or software with known vulnerabilities.
- 89% of healthcare organizations conduct vulnerability scanning quarterly, but far fewer do it monthly.
- Fewer than 20% of these organizations do advanced testing like wireless penetration tests, red/blue team exercises, or tabletop drills quarterly
Patient Safety Requires Prompt Patching
Most critical non-medical device vulnerabilities receive vendor patches within about 14 days, but hospitals still need regular scanning and strong processes to apply those patches.
Across more than 1.5 million patient-connected devices, about 8% have confirmed KEVs. A subset of those also has KEVs linked to ransomware and insecure connectivity, which means they are both exposed and attractive to attackers.
Nearly 80% of healthcare organizations have OT devices with KEVs, and 65% have OT devices with KEVs plus insecure Internet connectivity.
Your Ally in Managing Vulnerability Threats
Fortified’s VTM module is a seamless part of our Central Command platform. It lets you quickly prioritize vulnerabilities, spot trends, and filter by vulnerability type and severity. VTM data is instantly accessible on desktops, laptops, or mobile devices.
Turning Vulnerability Data Into Action
Fortified’s VTM module helps healthcare organizations:
- Make efficient use of limited staff time by focusing remediation efforts on high-priority vulnerabilities.
- Track “first seen” dates and patch publication dates, recognizing that today’s vulnerability may become tomorrow’s KEV.
- Isolate assets requiring vendor validation, enabling placement on segmented or bubble networks that reduce exposure to critical systems like medical records.
- Improve executive reporting by clearly summarizing patching progress and documenting remediation challenges.
- Authorize low-risk, non-critical patches for applications such as Adobe Reader, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Office without disrupting operations.
See VTM in Action
Watch Fortified’s on-demand webinar to learn how healthcare organizations can streamline vulnerability threat management, reduce risk, and better protect patient care through smarter prioritization and patching strategies.
