Why the healthcare cloud may demand zero trust architecture?

One of the most pressing issues in healthcare information technology today is the challenge of securing organizations that operate in the cloud.

Healthcare IT News sat down with P.J. Kirner, chief technology officer at Illumio, a cybersecurity company, to discuss securing a cloud environment in healthcare, and how the zero trust security model may be key. What are the security challenges that the cloud poses to healthcare provider organizations? A. While healthcare cloud growth comes with certain advantages – for example, more information sharing, lower costs and faster innovation – the proliferation of multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments has also complicated cloud security for healthcare providers in myriad ways. Healthcare providers that share sensitive data with third-party organizations over the cloud, for example, may also be impacted if their partner experiences a breach. Because of this, as more healthcare organizations move to the cloud, we're also going to see more attackers take advantage of the inherent flaws and vulnerabilities in this complex environment to gain access to sensitive data. Q. When it comes to securing healthcare organizations in the cloud, you contend that adopting a zero trust architecture – an approach that assumes breach and verifies every connection – is vital. By leveraging zero trust solutions for breach containment, healthcare organizations can mitigate the impact of a breach, that way an attacker cannot access patient data even if they manage to initially breach the system. Healthcare CISOs and CIOs who recognize the limitations of a legacy security model against today's ransomware threats will understand the need to adopt a strategy that assumes breach and can isolate attacks, which is what the zero trust philosophy is all about.