Infosecurity Europe: Reactive Security Is Failing Healthcare, Experts
Infosecurity Europe: Reactive Security Is Failing Healthcare, Experts
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/reactive-security-failing/
Publish Date: 2026-06-05 04:00:00
Source Domain: www.infosecurity-magazine.com
Healthcare organizations (HCO) must embrace AI-powered tools to spot and contain threats faster, or continue to risk potentially fatal consequences for patients, experts have warned.
Speaking at Infosecurity Europe on June 4, Cyber Salus CEO, Sher Baig, said HCOs across the globe face the same threats and operational constraints.
Legacy infrastructure, hyper-connectivity and human fatigue are fomenting a perfect storm of risk, he argued. In rare cases, breaches can lead to patient fatalities.
“If there was ever an industry where the potential harm bad actors can do is directly correlated to human impact, it’s healthcare,” Baig told attendees.
The sector is frequently described as the most targeted, with ransomware a particularly acute concern given its potential impact on clinical services.
Some 93% of HCOs suffered at least one cyber-attack in 2025, with an average of 43 attacks per organization, up from 40 in 2024, according to Proofpoint research.
Read more on healthcare security: A Quarter of Healthcare Organizations Report Medical Device Cyber-Attacks
Connected devices such as infusion pumps, imaging systems, patient monitors and lab systems are particularly exposed, Baig said.
“In healthcare, you don’t purchase medical equipment like an iPhone. These devices are in the field for 15 to 20 years running legacy operating systems,” he added.
Reactive approaches rooted in the past are failing HCOs, he argued – pointing to alert overload and time-consuming manual investigations. Discovering vulnerabilities after exposure and scrambling to assess and contain the risk is an increasingly unsustainable approach as AI collapses the exploit window.
AI is not only helping threat actors to find and exploit vulnerabilities in legacy systems and networks faster than ever, it’s also supercharging phishing.
However, it can also arm defenders through continuous monitoring and analysis, faster anomaly detection and automated threat prioritization,…
