Healthcare cybersecurity environments continue to become more complex as they embrace and rely on a diverse range of technologies to both manage and treat patients. Mobile access, cloud platforms, connected medical equipment, and IoT devices are just some of the many recent innovations used in practices across the country.
This rapid rise of newly introduced digital resources brings with it a heightened responsibility to improve and expand network security and data loss prevention efforts across every team and department within a medical facility.
To adapt, practitioners in every specialty are increasingly leveraging security information and event management (SIEM) systems.
What is SIEM?
A SIEM is an information security solution that aggregates data sets from multiple networked resources throughout a healthcare facility.
When used in a medical environment, a SIEM can deliver insight on several mission-critical operational components to help a provider identify and prevent a cybersecurity event.
While most healthcare organizations recognize the benefits of implementing SIEM reporting into their infrastructure, many are still unsure of what functionality to look for during the screening process.
What a comprehensive SIEM report should include
Real-Time Data Aggregation
A well-designed SIEM report will have the capabilities needed to collect data dispersed across multiple, complex channels in real-time. Once you’ve integrated the tool across your digital networks, it should gather, store, and monitor all information to generate relevant network security records and reports as needed.
A comprehensive tool will go beyond managing industry requirements to include all essential security and audit events, including any breaches initiated from your staff members for thorough, objective insight.
Compliance Evidence
Not only does a SIEM gather specific data sets requested by the organization, but it can aid in assessing whether or not an organization is abiding by regulatory compliance standards.
These capabilities can minimize the need for tedious, time-consuming, and potentially erroneous manual tracking methods, saving the organization money and resources throughout the process.
Customized Dashboards
Innovative SIEM reporting tools will also provide various visuals for relevant users within the system.
Beyond designated reports, a SIEM should have functionality for customized user dashboards based on permissions and restrictions within the system. Each user should have the ability to develop a specific range of data sets to monitor and display in real-time whenever needed.
Correlation and Analytics Rules
SIEM reporting offers medical facilities access to sophisticated and highly innovative correlation and analytics technology.
The SIEM’s correlations and analytics capabilities allow it to quickly identify and report on many potential threats to the system.
For example, designating a set number of unsuccessful login attempts within a specific timeframe may trigger an alert about a possible cyber attack.
Automated Security Alerts
A sophisticated SIEM reporting system will also have functionality for automated security alerts that notify the appropriate parties after a correlation rule has been violated.
These alerts can be delivered to the right users in various ways, including emails, texts, or the SIEM user interface for redundancy, ensuring no critical notifications go unseen.
As part of the SIEM reporting capabilities, these automated security alerts increase agility throughout an IT department, allowing stakeholders to respond and react as needed to circumvent a network security lapse.
Learn how OrthoNebraska Hospital incorporated SIEM and other threat management services into their cybersecurity program to effectively safeguard their organization and patient information.
