Protect hospitals, health data and medical devices: clinical networks, electronic health records, connected devices, HIPAA and health privacy, and ransomware resilience where downtime affects patients.
Estimated time: 15–29 months · At about 10 hours a week.
Learning path
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Describe health IT systems and clinical workflows.
Explain health privacy and breach rules.
Recognise medical device security constraints.
Hands-on projects and labs
Map the systems involved in a patient's visit, from registration to discharge, and their data flows.
Set up a FHIR test server and review its authentication and access controls.
Done when you can…
Explain the main threats to healthcare and their patient impact.
Describe how HIPAA or GDPR shapes health data security.
Beginner
The health IT landscape
EHRs, PACS imaging, labs, pharmacy, scheduling, billing and thousands of devices. Learn how clinical systems fit together and what clinicians depend on.
Design a segmented clinical network for a small hospital with device, clinical and corporate zones.
Write downtime procedures for a ransomware event and run them as a tabletop with clinical staff roles.
Rate the risk of five medical devices using sample MDS2 forms.
Done when you can…
Show a clinical network design that protects unpatchable devices.
Run a hospital ransomware exercise that keeps care going.
Intermediate
Clinical network segmentation
Separate medical devices, clinical systems, guest and corporate networks, and control the flows between them. Segmentation protects devices that cannot protect themselves.
Threat model a connected infusion pump using the MITRE/MDIC playbook.
Write a postmarket vulnerability management plan for a device.
Produce an SBOM and security documentation package for a sample device submission.
Done when you can…
Produce device security documentation that would satisfy a regulator.
Run a coordinated disclosure for a device vulnerability in a tabletop.
Advanced
Regulatory requirements for devices
The FDA, EU MDR and other regulators require threat modelling, SBOMs, vulnerability handling and update plans before approval. Learn what submissions need.
Healthcare runs on a mix of modern cloud platforms and decades-old clinical systems, with thousands of connected medical devices that cannot easily be patched. A security incident here can delay treatment, so availability and patient safety matter as much as data protection.
The field covers clinical network security, electronic health records and interoperability standards such as HL7 and FHIR, medical device security from design to hospital deployment, health data privacy law, and resilience against the ransomware groups that target hospitals.
Why it matters
Hospitals are among the most attacked organisations, health data is highly valuable, and device regulators now require cybersecurity before approval. Healthcare needs people who can protect systems without getting in the way of care.
Typical job roles
EntryHealthcare security analystMonitors and protects clinical environments.
Mid-levelMedical device security engineerSecures devices in design or in the hospital.
SeniorHealthcare security architectDesigns security for clinical networks and systems.
LeadHealthcare CISOOwns security across a health organisation.
Prerequisites
Security fundamentals and network security basics.
Some understanding of how hospitals and clinical workflows run.
NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0A common way to describe and improve an organisation's security, organised as Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover.
ISO/IEC 27001The international standard for an information security management system (ISMS), and the one organisations get certified against.
NIST Privacy FrameworkA voluntary tool to identify and manage privacy risk, built to work alongside the Cybersecurity Framework.