Customer Snapshot
A large healthcare system needed to harden its EHR against cyberattack to protect patient data and safeguard health outcomes. This meant embracing zero trust principles, including the launch of a complex project to microsegment network and data center traffic.
The Challenge
A proactive risk assessment revealed some vulnerabilities in the healthcare system’s complex and highly interdependent infrastructure. This launched a multi-year wellness journey to close security gaps and protect sensitive patient data across the enterprise.
The Solution
Microsegmentation significantly reduced the healthcare system’s attack surface, giving the organization a big boost in providing greater compliance adherence and patient data protection. Cross-team collaboration was essential, as were Structured’s project management and expert engineering services.
Zero Trust as a Treatment Plan
Healthcare systems of every size strive to preserve and improve patient health. It is fundamental to their mission, essential to quality care metrics, and directly tied to reimbursements. Positive patient outcomes mean everything in healthcare.
As it turns out, one primary factor contributing to positive outcomes is the safety and security of the electronic health record (EHR) platform. The network security team at a large healthcare system knew this very well so they launched a security risk assessment to start the wellness journey for their EHR and the valuable data contained within.
One of the recommendations arising from the assessment was to embark on a zero-trust strategy. This included:
- Microsegmentation on the campus network to better control traffic and devices.
- Microsegmentation in the data center to add extra protection for applications, workloads, and data.
Cisco Secure Workload (formerly Tetration) emerged as a top technology to support the requirements of this EHR microsegmentation project.
The Challenge:
Healthcare is a major target for threat actors, and EHRs are the bullseye they try hardest to hit. Unfortunately, there is no easy button for protecting these critical applications, which must operate with near 100 percent uptime, directly impact the workflows of multiple departments, and frequently must be available with up-to-the-minute data over large geographic distances and siloed systems.
For this particular healthcare system, all of those factors applied. Their challenge was to upgrade aging IT infrastructure and the EHR’s software modules while also applying new security policies across the enterprise — all without taking this system offline during a project that lasted more than a year. Picking a technology platform that could enable this mission — and support the organization’s needs over the long term — was paramount.
The Solution:
Gaining Consensus
Like many healthcare organizations, the EHR was managed by the application team, not the infrastructure or security teams. So, cross-team communication and collaboration was essential to the success of this project. The network security team, assisted by Structured’s teams for project management and professional services, worked carefully with the EHR application team to build rapport and trust. Through the entire engagement, project managers and team leadership met weekly for planning and review sessions, making sure to inform and engage all affected parties. This collaboration helped the team avoid the missteps and pitfalls that can plague large, interdependent projects.
Choosing Cisco: The Right Prescription
With assistance from Structured, the healthcare system’s network security team defined its success criteria for the data center microsegmentation project to simplify evaluation and inform product selection. Cisco Secure Workload was chosen to support this project. Its powerful technical capabilities, combined with its interoperability and manageability, made it a superior solution for the healthcare system and its busy teams across IT networking, cybersecurity, and applications management.
The many benefits of Cisco Secure Workload include:
- Auto-generated microsegmentation policies.
- Enforcement of role-based access control across user groups through dynamic attribute-based policy definitions.
- Consistent policy enforcement at scale through distributed control over networking and security infrastructure on premises or in the cloud, including firewalls, application delivery controllers, and other networking infrastructure.
Technology & Services at a Glance
Services:
Scoping—providing a custom approach to their individual needs
Design—selecting the right Cisco products
Facilitation—professional project management from start to finish
Deployment—successfully building out the architecture and applying the necessary upgrades and policies.
Technology:
Cisco Secure Workload
Partners:
Cisco
“Delivering World-Class Patient Care”
“Cisco Secure Workload is helping the healthcare system comply with stringent regulatory requirements, protect sensitive data, and guarantee platform uptime,” said Chris Whalen, Structured’s Cisco practice managing director. “In turn, this empowers their healthcare professionals to continue doing what they do best, delivering world-class care that improves patient outcomes and satisfaction.”
Conclusion:
An Operation with Healthy Outcomes
Applications drive modern business. Nowhere is this truer than in healthcare where the EHR is the figurative central nervous system, storing and transmitting vital data to providers, patients, and even payers in support of all care decisions.
Due to careful planning and project management, cross-team collaboration, strong technical execution, and the superior capabilities of Cisco Secure Workload, this EHR microsegmentation project was completed without causing any downtime in the production environment.
“Microsegmenting the healthcare system’s EHR environment was a critical step in ensuring platform availability, data integrity, and — most importantly — patient privacy,” said Keith Schawel, director of Cisco security solutions at Structured.
Thanks to the extra cybersecurity and policy enforcement that microsegmentation provides, the healthcare system’s network security team is empowered to identify and respond to threats before they cause undue harm. The application team can be confident the EHR will remain available and that its data will be protected. The overall environment is safer, which means patients are safer. As a result, the long-term prognosis is excellent for this healthcare system and its patients.
Ready to Protect the Health of Your Applications and Data?
Take Action Today
If your organization faces similar challenges or seeks to enhance the security posture of your EHR and other critical applications, reach out to Structured, today. Our team of experts is here to guide you toward the right solution. Let’s build a secure future together!
Contact your Structured Account Manager or email info@structured.com.