Advanced threat detection in healthcare is becoming essential as data breaches rise across hospitals and payors. According to a recent report by Endeavor Business Intelligence, nearly two-thirds of healthcare organizations ranked data protection as their No. 1 interest.

Payors and providers across the industry are making advanced threat detection a top priority. These tools are now seen as a critical investment to defend digital systems and protect patient data. Without solid processes and technology to detect and reduce threats, healthcare organizations risk losing public trust. They also face costly shutdowns, legal fees, ransom demands, and other expenses tied to data breaches.

Cybersecurity Threats & Successful Breaches in 2025

In 2025 alone, 364 hacking incidents were reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, affecting more than 33 million Americans. Some might assume stolen information is taken directly from hospitals. However, when electronic health records are accessible across all hospitals in a health system, diverse physicians in a provider network, third parties, service lines, and other collaborators, hospital systems have a hard time monitoring their internal and external cyber risk exposure. This leads to data theft and ultimately exposure of confidential patient information.

A recent article by ISACA describes AI in cybersecurity threats as one of the biggest changes on the horizon. While bad actors are one worry, autonomous AI systems are capable of goal setting, time-bound reasoning, maintaining memory, and carrying out multi-step processes without human assistance. This leads to new enemies, like Persistent Autonomous Threats.

Several large, successful breaches happened this year within healthcare, including:

• Yale New Haven Health System: 5,556,702 individuals affected
• Episource: 5,418,866 individuals affected
• Anne Arundel Dermatology: 1,905,000 individuals affected
• Radiology Associates of Richmond: 1,419,091 individuals affected

Risk Detection and Threat Prevention in Modern-Day Healthcare

Risk detection and threat prevention are critical to the protection of sensitive patient data and the continuity of care. A layered risk management system includes threat identification, assessment, prioritization, and response, such as:

1. Data breach frequency and severity tracking: Quantification of how often breaches occur and their impact on finances, compliance, and patient trust.
2. An ePHI exposure incident plan: Corrective actions, aligned with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for electronic protected health information (ePHI) theft or misuse and payment of resulting compliance penalties.
3. Unresolved critical vulnerability identification: Discovery of unpatched security flaws that leave systems exposed to breaches.
4. Proper cloud configuration: Measurement of the cloud misconfiguration rate exposes errors in cloud security settings that can lead to breaches.
5. Third-party risk assessments: Confirmation that vendors meet security standards to reduce external risks.
6. Security assessment completion: A report on how consistently organizations perform scheduled risk assessments (SRAs).
7. Incident response time measurement: Benchmarks of goals to improve how quickly threats are detected, addressed, and resolved.

The Importance of Incident Response Planning

Payors and providers who prioritize a thorough incident response plan can address breaches with an immediacy that may help mitigate operational, financial, and reputational damage. According to the NIST SP800-61R3 Incident Response Recommendations for Cybersecurity Risk Management, incident response is a critical part of cybersecurity risk management and should be integrated across organizational operations.

Successful breaches cost healthcare organizations millions. They also affect reputation and brand perception, forcing some entities to lose the competitive advantage they once had in the marketplace.

At FRG, we follow the incident handling process created by the SANS Institute. This response plan includes the following steps.

1. Preparation: All required documentation, equipment, and support to prepare for a security incident.
2. Identification: Verification, validation, and declaration that an incident is occurring. This requires the Investor Relations team and the ready availability of resources.
3. Containment: Immediate activation of controls to limit the impact.
4. Eradication: Once damage is contained and removed, extermination of the effects of the attack from all systems.
5. Recovery: Restoration of systems to full operation with the preservation of security and maintenance of evidence.
6. Lessons Learned: A thorough incident report, issued within 30 to 60 days of the attack, that identifies and confirms resolution of any weaknesses.

FRG’s Commitment to Security and Compliance

Since 1999, Financial Recovery Group has prioritized partnerships and data security. It is our company’s mission to reduce risk. To meet this goal, FRG’s Security & Compliance Team handles audit logging, security assessments, team training, and regularly updates documentation regarding company policies. Additionally, using the HHS SRA Tool, our team regularly performs security risk assessments mandated by the HIPAA Security Rule.

This Security and Compliance Month, FRG proudly maintains its own private onshore data centers designed for automatic failovers to provide secure hosting of client data in a HITRUST-certified environment with reliable uptime. This private cloud model gives our clients confidence that their sensitive information is stored domestically and protected physically and logically.

For additional information about FRG’s services and our dedication to security and compliance, email info@frgsystems.com or call 888-466-1025 today.