February CISO BRIEF: Privacy Deadlines, Clinical Impact, and Persistent Attack Paths
As healthcare organizations move closer to the February 16, 2026, compliance deadline for the updated 42 CFR Part 2 requirements, they are doing so in an environment defined by persistent ransomware activity, slow remediation of known exploited vulnerabilities, expanding clinical attack surfaces, and growing use of unmanaged technologies. This month’s Brief focuses on how these […]
Preparation Changes Outcomes In Ransomware Attacks
In our latest webinar, we conducted a Red Team/Blue Team post-mortem on a real ransomware attack that occurred last year at Frederick Health Medical Group in Maryland. The system has more than 4,000 clinicians and staff across 25 locations. The Frederick Health attack exposed more than 900,000 patient records and hampered operations for a number […]
Healthcare Data Privacy: What Industry Signals Reveal About Deeper Cybersecurity Risk
During Data Privacy Week, healthcare leaders have the chance to go beyond awareness messaging. They can closely examine how patient data is accessed, shared, and protected. Healthcare data privacy often focuses on compliance through policies, training, and regulations. However, the real risk comes from how data flows across systems, vendors, and people in the interconnected […]
2026 Horizon Report: The New Reality of Healthcare Cybersecurity
Healthcare cybersecurity has entered a new phase. The era of isolated, headline-grabbing mega-breaches is giving way to something more demanding and more dangerous: constant disruption. In 2025, healthcare organizations experienced significantly more cyber incidents than the year before, yet those breaches affected fewer patient records overall. On the surface, that might sound like progress. In […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]