5 Trends Shaping Healthcare Cybersecurity in 2025

2024 ushered in significant changes for the healthcare industry. Industry-wide digital transformation, remote care expansion, increased merger and acquisition (M&A) activity as well as rapid AI adoption led to unprecedented growth of data and devices. Unfortunately, this increased reliance on health data also coincided with a surge in cyberattacks - 92% of healthcare organizations experienced a cyberattack in 2024. As Palo Alto Networks recently explored in our predictions for the next year, we expect that critical infrastructure sectors, such as healthcare, will face heightened risks with their significant IP and critical data repositories, making them attractive targets and more vulnerable to sophisticated disruptions.

Now, healthcare organizations are at a critical inflection point - they must advance digital transformation and do so securely. How do they strike that balance? By looking ahead at what's on the horizon and implementing the solutions to get ahead of those changes today. Palo Alto Networks and Accenture are partnering with healthcare organizations worldwide to strengthen cyber resilience in the evolving landscape.

1. M&A Activity Will Boost Growth, but Also Increase Risk

Industry-wide M&A transactions continue driving growth and care efficiency within healthcare organizations. But M&A activities pose unique challenges due to the elaborate and interconnected nature of healthcare IT systems, and the risk of a data breach nearly doubles in the year before and after M&A activity.

Strategies to Consider

When it comes to M&A, an acquisition-ready SASE architecture and attack surface management (ASM) solution can reduce security risk and ensure availability of applications, services and devices.

2. Zero Trust Will Gain Popularity, but Getting There Will Be a Challenge​

Zero Trust architecture makes multicloud environments, internet of things (IoT) ecosystems and enhanced mobility possible without compromising security. But with so many tools across healthcare organizations, it's hard to have a clear starting point or understanding of interactions, resulting in inconsistent protections.

Strategies to Consider

Zero Trust policies and controls can ensure continuous trust validation and security inspection, as well as consistent least privilege security policy for healthcare apps, users and devices.

3. Securing Data and Devices Will Become Even More Complex

Medical IoT devices are redefining how healthcare organizations deliver care. Yet most medical devices are not designed with security in mind. In fact, 57% of IoT devices are vulnerable to medium or high-severity attacks. With an estimated 2 million different kinds of IoMT devices on the world market today, protecting them will be more essential than ever. Additionally, as supply chains grow more complex, it's leading to vulnerability.

Similarly, while distributed care models help organizations deliver patient-centric care, dispersed information can make it more difficult to protect patient privacy and maintain compliance with regulations while ensuring authorized access to patient data.

Strategies to Consider

Securing connected devices on a centralized platform enables accurate device discovery at scale with comprehensive visibility, risk assessment and security policy enforcement. A comprehensive enterprise data loss prevention (DLP) solution can also provide the visibility, insights and control to protect patient privacy while ensuring authorized access to sensitive and confidential data.

In "The Cyber-Resilient CEO" you can explore the complexities of cyberthreats and five actions that CEOs can take to be more cyber resilient.

4. It's Less About Using AI and More About Doing It Safely

The rapid integration of AI has driven unprecedented innovation, including the potential to enhance healthcare security through threat detection, automated response, predictive analytics and more. But AI also introduces significant risks and challenges, including regulatory compliance, data bias and integration with legacy systems. For example, there has been a 76% rise in ransomware attacks since the launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022.

Strategies to Consider

AI Access Security™ combined with Prisma® Cloud AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM) and AI Runtime Security™ can help organizations secure generative AI and AI-powered apps by design.

Look at Accenture's blueprint for responsible AI to see how other companies are mitigating potential risks from AI.

5. Tech Sprawl Will Continue Hindering Organizations

Many organizations have acquired a vast collection of point solutions, with some reporting as many as 76 security tools to manage. This massive tech sprawl can jeopardize a healthcare organization's ability to maintain compliance and properly react to a security event.

Strategies to Consider

Tool rationalization can help break down security silos, streamline operations for IT and security staff, and unlock efficiencies and cost-savings.

If that sounds like a lot to consider, there's good news. Palo Alto Networks and Accenture provide healthcare organizations with the advanced technologies and expert guidance needed to navigate threats, no matter how they evolve. By combining cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions, end-to-end cloud services and a deep understanding of the intricacies of the healthcare industry, this collaboration empowers healthcare organizations to build stronger security postures and continue delivering innovative patient care while maintaining the highest levels of data security and privacy. To learn more about our platform approach to healthcare cybersecurity, visit our healthcare resource hub.

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