Modern Managed Detection and Response for Healthcare Providers: Your Ultimate Guide

Cyberattacks on the healthcare industry have evolved over the years. Providers are offering more digital technology options for patients, facing constant threats, and suffering from internal staffing and budget shortages. Today’s cyberattackers are using sophisticated assaults with greater frequency to get their hands on sensitive data that healthcare organizations store. In particular, healthcare providers are challenged with attacks from insider threats, ransomware, business email compromise, and more.

To defend against cyberattackers, healthcare organizations may consider a variety of security solutions, including security information and event management (SIEM), managed security service providers (MSSP), extended detection and response (XDR), and managed detection and response (MDR):

• SIEM collects log data and forwards the data to a centralized management and analysis system. It stores the data for posterity, correlates data, and provides alerts, but because it’s technology only, it’s outdated as a solution.
• MSSP provide alerts and manage firewalls and devices designed to keep attackers out at the perimeter. It involves technology, people, and some processes, but it’s not designed to compete with today’s sophisticated cyberattackers. Over time, MSSP have become an “alert factory” with alerts being provided to internal security teams, with no additional support with investigation or response.
• XDR delivers detection and response by connecting network, log, and endpoint visibility. However, the platform can be complicated to deploy and requires considerable time and energy from capable cybersecurity experts to configure and operate it.
• MDR began as a service to investigate alerts and incidents to better support internal teams with limited response capabilities. Modern MDR combines advanced technology and experienced security professionals to combat today’s threat environment and provide closed-loop incident response. Security professionals perform full scope analysis of networks, endpoints, logs, and cloud environments and proactively respond to threats. The best MDR is a modern one with a complete tool set, experts available to leverage it, and a close partnership with your team to investigate and respond to incidents.

Different healthcare organizations are at different stages of cybersecurity maturity. Your healthcare organization may already have technology and people in place, and modern managed detection and response (MDR) providers like Pondurance build on what you have or bring what you need to provide a customized approach to your cybersecurity. At Pondurance, we believe you shouldn’t have to throw out your existing tools or be locked into only one approach. We integrate your existing infrastructure and controls into our own monitoring and response platform.

As technology has advanced over the years, security tools have become increasingly tough to deploy, operate, and maintain. Many of the complex tools even require specialized certifications to properly use them. When you use Pondurance’s powerful platform to protect against cyberattacks, the technology burden lifts from the shoulders of your IT or cybersecurity team and lands squarely on our shoulders. However, your in-house team still has access to the same technology and visibility as our analysts, and you retain access to your data at all times.

Once a threat is identified in the cyber landscape, every minute counts. Modern managed detection and response (MDR) providers like Pondurance help your healthcare organization immediately respond to the cyber threat to minimize damage and reduce recovery time and costs. After all, the longer a cyberattacker dwells in your network, the more opportunity the attacker has to access sensitive protected health information (PHI), infiltrate financial accounts, and introduce malicious malware. Pondurance rapidly takes action against an attack with predefined parameters and a 24/7 team of incident responders, incident handlers, and forensic and malware specialists who can coordinate a full incident response from the moment the threat is identified. We combine our industry-leading MDR platform with our experienced team to provide:

• Identification – Identify and detect an incident as soon as possible
• Containment – Stop the incident and reduce the impact
• Eradication – Eliminate the threat and prevent recurrence
• Recovery – Return to normal operations and conduct a post-breach investigation

Not only can Pondurance stop the incident, but we also can compile detailed forensic reports to document what happened and openly communicate with your insurance providers and attorneys:

• Insurance brokers and carriers – Pondurance works as a go-to provider for incident response and digital forensics engagements. We specialize in building pre-incident relationships to facilitate a rapid, on-target response and reduce the cost of incidents.
• Attorneys – Pondurance partners with leading law firms and in-house attorneys who specialize in cybersecurity and HIPAA privacy matters. We support the highest level of confidentiality and operational security regarding all matters.

Your healthcare organization is unique, with its own compliance requirements, staffing challenges, vulnerability issues, and security policies and procedures. Modern managed detection and response providers need to allow for flexibility in their solutions and the ability to adapt and meet your changing needs. Pondurance understands that no one cybersecurity package fits every healthcare organization, so we consult with you and customize our services to your organization’s specific operational needs from assessment to implementation and through the life of your partnership with us.

We meet you where you are in your cybersecurity journey. Then, as your cybersecurity needs mature over time, our services adapt to continue keeping you safe from an attack and in compliance.

As part of our customized solutions, we offer comprehensive reporting and risk assessment:

• Reporting. Security reporting is important for compliance in the heavily regulated healthcare industry. Pondurance’s experts provide custom logging and reporting — with fine-grained visibility and alerting for all relevant systems including networks, endpoints, and the cloud — to precisely document processes and cybersecurity incidents as they happen.
• Risk assessment. To stay protected against attack, your healthcare organization needs to know its cybersecurity posture. Performing periodic risk assessments is a great way to identify the areas where you are at risk and know the full extent of your vulnerabilities. A risk assessment can ensure that you’re properly allocating your cybersecurity resources and have a thorough incident response plan in place. Pondurance can conduct a risk assessment to uncover your security weaknesses and build a solid solution to defend your healthcare organization against future cyber threats.