The National Institute of Standards and Technology's updated Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 can help healthcare organizations better formalize their governance functions to enhance their cybersecurity posture and resilience, said Robert Booker, chief strategy officer at HITRUST.

AI is on the way to embedding itself in our daily lives. CISO Sam Curry and his brother, CMO Red Curry, discuss what generative AI means for copyrights and plagiarism, the "AI bubble," and whether governing AI-derived speech will wind up limiting free speech.

The many kinds of OT and IoT gear that are not regulated medical devices but are critical to run hospitals and other care facilities present a variety of cybersecurity and patient safety concerns, said Dr. Benoit Desjardins, professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Medicine.

In the aftermath of a ransomware attack several years ago, Hackensack Meridian Health embarked on transforming its cybersecurity program with the support of top leadership and increased funding and staff and by implementing critical security tools and best practices, said CISO Mark Johnson.

Healthcare organizations and makers of medical devices need to think about how to safeguard their critical medical gear against future cyberthreats, including the looming dangers posed by quantum computing, said Mike Nelson, global vice president of digital trust at security firm DigiCert.

The U.S. healthcare sector needs to closely watch government regulatory and legislative developments involving artificial intelligence, including the European Union AI Act, said Lee Kim, senior principal of cybersecurity and privacy at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

It's critical for hospitals and other firms to not only prepare for how they will respond to a cyberattack but also to consider the regional impact if a neighboring provider of services needed in the community is disrupted by a serious cyber incident, said Margie Zuk of Mitre.

Healthcare sector organizations need to focus their attention on meeting the "voluntary" essential and enhanced cybersecurity performance goals set out by federal regulators before they become potential mandates, said Kate Pierce, virtual information security officer at Fortified Heath Security.

The vast healthcare ecosystem disruption caused by the recent attack on Change Healthcare, which affected more than 100 of the company's IT products and services, underscores the concentrated cyber risk when a major vendor suffers a serious cyber incident, said Keith Fricke, partner at tw-Security.

The healthcare sector needs a 911-style cyber civil defense system that can help all segments of the industry, including under-resourced groups, to more rapidly and effectively respond to cyberattacks and related incidents, said Erik Decker, CISO of Intermountain Health and a federal cyber adviser.