CISO Brief: A Look Back at Healthcare Cybersecurity in 2025, A Year Defined by Disruption
As 2025 comes to a close, it’s impossible not to view the year through a wide-angle lens. Healthcare cybersecurity in 2025 did not follow a clean, predictable arc. Instead, it delivered a series of sharp turns, unexpected pivots, and both hard-earned wins and hard-learned lessons. If 2024 felt volatile, 2025 reaffirmed that volatility is now the default operating […]
Inside a Healthcare Ransomware Battle: How Preparation Saved Patients
With 25 years in cybersecurity, including experience at the Department of Defense and National Security Agency, Phil Alexander has seen the full spectrum of cyber threats. Since founding his consultancy and working extensively with healthcare organizations, he’s gained unique insights into the industry’s specific vulnerabilities and the most effective strategies to address them. His experience […]
When Cyber Threats Hit Rural Hospitals: Lessons from the Front Lines
A savvy CEO leads a rural hospital through a cybersecurity crisis Cybersecurity attacks on rural hospitals are no longer a question of “if,” but “when.” For Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, Maine, that moment came during Chrissi Maguire’s tenure as CEO. A longtime financial and operational leader turned hospital chief, Maguire had to […]
Incident Response Programs vs. Incident Response Retainers
When it comes to cybersecurity, every healthcare organization knows it needs an Incident Response (IR) capability, but far fewer realize that having an IR retainer alone isn’t enough. Many sign on for Incident Response Retainers (IRR), assuming that a bucket of pre-paid hours means peace of mind when a breach occurs. The reality? Both approaches […]
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Fortified Veteran Honors His Uncle’s Legacy
Sometimes you set out to honor a veteran’s service. And sometimes, that veteran uses his story to honor someone else. For Mike Gregory, a Fortified Health Security vCISO and retired U.S. Air Force veteran, Veterans Day is not only about his own three decades of service. It is about the man whose courage, humor, and […]
Carrying the Legacy Forward: How a Family History of Service Shaped a Path from Navy to Cybersecurity
For Fortified Health Security vCISO, Troy Cruzen, service isn’t just something he randomly chose; it’s something he dreamed about. Growing up in Michigan, history surrounded Troy. His father, a history buff, filled their home with books about U.S. presidents, military history/wars, and board games that recreated famous Civil War battles, such as Battle Cry. Later, he discovered a family member who had recorded the family history in a thick, leather-bound book, […]
CISO Brief: October 2025 Cybersecurity Threat Recap & Insight
October delivered two wake-up calls for healthcare cybersecurity leaders: a critical WSUS remote-code execution flaw that exposed update-chain integrity and a major AWS US-EAST-1 outage that disrupted global services for hours. Together, they underscored a single truth—even trusted infrastructure and cloud providers can become a single point of failure. This month’s CISO Brief for October […]
Strategies for Strengthening Cybersecurity Programs
Maturing cybersecurity programs leverage a range of best practices. We take a closer look at these in the new Fortified webinar and panel discussion “Cyber Risk, Budgets, and Patient Safety” hosted by Senior vCISO Tamra Durfee. Joining Tamra on the panel discussion are Ann Wright, director of IT and informatics at Ortho Nebraska, and Erin […]
How to Make Third-Party Risk Manageable
A new Fortified webinar, “Make Third-Party Risk Manageable,” will help you take steps to protect your organization from the security threats posed by vendors. This informative webinar is hosted by Melissa Adams, Fortified’s Director of Third-Party Risk Management, and Jared Michaels, Principal Solutions Architect. Some of the largest healthcare breaches in recent years have involved […]
Lessons from the Front Lines: The Perspective of a Cyberattack from the Nursing Floor
A longtime nurse has seen the impact of cyberattacks up close and personal. Don Neal is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) with nearly 50 years of healthcare experience. As a self-described “old-timer,” he experienced the shift to healthcare technology firsthand, from using electronic charting to switching to automated blood pressure machines. While he says […]