Cracks in healthcare's cybersecurity ecosystem threaten patient safety


 This commentary explores the systemic vulnerabilities inherent in the highly interconnected healthcare supply chain. Modern healthcare delivery relies on a complex web of vendors, from electronic health record (EHR) providers to third-party billing services and cloud hosts. The article illustrates how "cracks" in this ecosystem—such as a security lapse at a minor vendor—can propagate across the entire network, causing cascading failures that impact major hospital systems.


The "fourth-party risk" is highlighted as a major blind spot; hospitals may vet their direct vendors, but they rarely have visibility into the vendors their vendors use. To plug these cracks, the industry needs to move toward a collective defense model, sharing threat intelligence more freely and enforcing stricter security clauses in procurement contracts. The author posits that without a unified approach to supply chain security, patient data and safety will remain perpetually at risk from indirect attacks.

Read the original article at: https://medcitynews.com/2025/04/the-hidden-cracks-in-healthcares-cybersecurity-ecosystem/



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