Cybersecurity specialist Cylera forms Global Advisory Council to tackle growing cybercrime in healthcare

Published by

Peter Davison

Cheltenham-based healthcare IoT and medical device cybersecurity specialist Cylera has formed its first Advisory Council, bringing together world leaders in cybersecurity to help tackle the myriad of security challenges facing today’s rapidly digitalising healthcare sector.

As a critical infrastructure, healthcare remains a top target for cybercriminals with access to rich patient data and a potential to cause significant damage and disruption to patient care.

The threat is ever greater with rising geopolitical tensions and potential state-sponsored attacks: 81 per cent of UK healthcare organisations experienced a ransomware attack last year with patient in-person appointments having to be cancelled as a result, for two-thirds of these organisations.

Sixty-five percent admitted that a cyber-attack could increase patient mortality rates.

The average cost of a data breach in the global healthcare sector amounted to $10 million USD (£7.9 million) last year according to IBM.

And the potential cybersecurity risk to the sector is anticipated to get worse with further digitalisation.

Timur Ozekcin, CEO of Cylera (pictured), said: “Healthcare is undergoing a particularly dramatic digital transformation with accelerated spend in IoT expected to reach $54 billion by 2029.

“Already medical devices account for more than 30 per cent of connected endpoints at hospitals with devices ranging from X-Rays and CT machines, mobile ultrasound machines, radiotherapy and chemotherapy devices plus online building systems and CCTVs,” continued Tim.

“Also, the number of remotely monitored patients has risen sharply in the past couple years. Connected environments are becoming increasingly more complex in healthcare and, with the sector planning further digital investment tens of thousands of more devices will join the IT networks, many of which could be a security risk, expanding a hospital’s attack surface for threat actors to exploit.

“Remote user access, unsegmented and potentially unmanaged networks, legacy operating systems and limited visibility into IoT device risks are just some of the security challenges keeping healthcare leaders and heads of hospital IT awake at night as they try to navigate the complexities of today’s interconnected device landscape,” added Timur.

The Cylera Cybersecurity Advisory Council is made up of select members and involves CISOs, CIOs and CTOs from major healthcare providers and hospitals along with private sector companies. The Council will meet at least four times a year to share best practice, insight, and to address and tackle the unique security challenges of increasing complex interconnected healthcare systems.

One of the Advisory Council members, Brian Tschinkel, CISO at Weill Cornell Medicine, a leading academic health system in New York, said: “Cyber threats to the healthcare sector are among the most sophisticated and targeted across any industry.

"Healthcare networks are incredibly complex with interconnected medical and IoT devices that caregivers rely on to deliver the highest level of care to their patients.

"It is mission critical for hospitals to have visibility of their attack surface and therefore visibility into all connected assets to help secure their organisations. I look forward to advising Cylera to help stay ahead of future cybersecurity challenges.”

The Advisory Council will also guide Cylera in its global expansion plans and the latest innovations to its IoT device cybersecurity and intelligence platform.

“Cylera is at the forefront of IoT cybersecurity,” added Tomás Maldonado CISO at the NFL (National Football League) and Cylera Advisory Council member.

“With increasing digitalisation and rapid adoption of IoT devices across every industry, including sports and entertainment venues, it’s imperative to stay ahead of the cybersecurity risks to the connected devices that make up our new cyber-physical environments.

'I’m delighted to be working through the Advisory Council to help shape the future of Cylera on its mission to safeguard our connected world.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.