The Most-Targeted Industry in Cybersecurity

Healthcare leads every breach-cost study, every ransomware list, and every regulator's enforcement report

HIPAA Compliance Doesn't Stop Ransomware. Nomad Does Both.

Change Healthcare. Ascension. UnitedHealth. The 2024–2025 wave of healthcare ransomware incidents demonstrated what practitioners already knew: HIPAA compliance and operational security resilience are not the same thing. Healthcare organizations need both — paperwork that satisfies OCR enforcement and technical controls that survive contact with LockBit, BlackCat, Akira, and Scattered Spider. Nomad's healthcare practice delivers both, with practitioners who have responded to live healthcare ransomware events and built HIPAA security programs from scratch.

HIPAA Security Rule risk analysis (45 CFR §164.308(a)(1)(ii)(A))
HITRUST CSF and i1 / r2 assessment readiness
FDA premarket cybersecurity guidance for medical-device manufacturers
IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) penetration testing
Business Associate Agreement (BAA) risk-tier review and vendor testing
HHS 405(d) Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP) alignment
Healthcare cybersecurity

Specialization Across Healthcare

Different healthcare sub-segments need different security programs

Hospitals & Health Systems

EHR (Epic, Cerner, MEDITECH) security review, OT/biomedical-device network segmentation, ransomware readiness, ER-resilience tabletops, and HHS-405(d) HICP-aligned program build-out.

Payers & Health Plans

HIPAA Privacy/Security Rule combined assessments, member-portal pentest, claims-fraud and ATO testing, and CMS Interoperability Rule API security (FHIR R4).

Telehealth & Digital Health

HIPAA-compliant SaaS security programs, video-platform pentest, mobile-app security, third-party SDK risk, and SOC 2 + HITRUST dual-track readiness.

Medical Device Manufacturers

FDA premarket cybersecurity guidance compliance, SBOM analysis, threat modeling per AAMI TIR57, post-market vulnerability management, and OWASP Medical Device Top 10 testing.

Life Sciences & Pharma

21 CFR Part 11 validated-system testing, clinical-trial platform security, GxP environment pentest, and IP-protection-focused threat modeling for research data.

Provider Groups & ACOs

Cost-effective HIPAA risk analysis, vCISO services for groups too small for a full-time security officer, and EHR-vendor security questionnaire support.

The Threats Healthcare Actually Faces

What we see in our IR queue from healthcare organizations

Ransomware That Diverts Ambulances

Healthcare is the most-paid ransomware sector because patient-safety pressure shortens decision time. Readiness assessments measuring biomedical-network segmentation, EHR-resilience, and downtime-procedure rehearsal are now table-stakes for hospital boards.

Business Email Compromise & Wire Fraud

Healthcare AP teams are top BEC targets — and HIPAA-driven email retention makes the impact easy to quantify. Our phishing and vishing assessments include finance-team-specific pretexting.

Third-Party Breach Cascades

Change Healthcare proved how third-party compromises cascade across the entire industry. Our BAA-tiered third-party risk programs and customer-questionnaire support help you both manage vendor risk and respond when a vendor is the victim.

IoMT & Biomedical Device Compromise

Infusion pumps, imaging systems, patient-monitoring devices, and connected diagnostics — many running unpatched legacy operating systems on flat networks. We test the actual device populations, not just the policies governing them.

Frameworks We Speak Fluently

Aligned to the standards your OCR auditor, HITRUST assessor, and FDA reviewer recognize

HIPAA Security Rule
Administrative, physical, and technical safeguards (45 CFR §164.308–§164.312)
HITRUST CSF
e1, i1, r2 readiness and pre-certification testing
NIST 800-66 Rev 2
HIPAA Security Rule implementation guide
HHS 405(d) HICP
Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices, small / medium / large org
FDA Premarket Guidance
Cybersecurity in medical devices (2023 final guidance)
AAMI TIR57
Principles for medical device security risk management
21 CFR Part 11
Electronic records and signatures for FDA-regulated systems
NIST CSF 2.0
Healthcare-tailored profile for risk-based prioritization
HHS 405(d) HSCC
Joint Cybersecurity Working Group guidance

How We Engage With Healthcare Organizations

HIPAA Risk Analysis & Program

Comprehensive HIPAA Security Rule risk analysis, policy and procedure development, and ongoing program operations through vCISO services calibrated to your Security Officer responsibilities.

Healthcare Pentest Program

Annual pentest rotation covering EHR-adjacent systems, patient portals, mobile apps, payer-facing APIs, and biomedical-network segmentation validation.

Ransomware Readiness for Hospitals

Readiness assessments tuned to clinical-operations risk: ER-diversion scenarios, downtime-procedure rehearsal, biomedical-device dependency mapping.

24/7 Incident Response

Senior responders on 1-hour SLA with prior healthcare-IR experience. Coordination with OCR notification timelines, breach counsel, and patient-communications response.

Medical Device Security Testing

FDA-aligned premarket testing for manufacturers, post-market vulnerability research, and on-the-floor device-population assessment for delivery organizations.

BAA & Third-Party Risk

Tiered vendor risk programs, BAA-aligned vendor assessment templates, and rapid third-party-breach response support when a vendor is the source of compromise.

Healthcare Cybersecurity FAQ

The HIPAA Security Rule doesn't name "penetration testing" explicitly — it requires "evaluation" (45 CFR §164.308(a)(8)) and a documented risk analysis. In practice, OCR investigators expect to see penetration testing for organizations of any meaningful size, and the 2024 proposed Security Rule update would make it explicit. Our reports are structured to satisfy both interpretations.

Yes — across e1, i1, and r2. We deliver gap assessments against the HITRUST CSF, support control implementation and evidence collection, perform required penetration testing, and coordinate with your HITRUST authorized external assessor. Many clients pair HITRUST with SOC 2 Type II on a single program.

Call our incident response team. Even if you weren't directly attacked, a BAA breach starts the OCR notification clock for you. We help you (1) determine your data exposure, (2) coordinate with your breach counsel on notification, (3) assess whether the threat actor has pivoted to your systems, and (4) communicate appropriately with patients and partners.

Yes — this is one of our specialties. We use passive-discovery techniques for inventory and threat-modeling, isolated lab testing of identical device models acquired separately, and carefully scoped active testing windows for devices that cannot be replicated. We have never disrupted patient care during a healthcare engagement.

A typical digital-health early-stage engagement: 90 days of vCISO time to build the HIPAA security program from scratch, a baseline web app + API pentest, and SOC 2 Type I readiness. By month 6 you have what you need for hospital-system procurement conversations. By month 12, SOC 2 Type II and HITRUST e1.

Yes. We're on the panels of carriers with significant healthcare books — Beazley, Chubb, Coalition, AIG, Travelers — and we have direct relationships with healthcare-focused breach counsel. Healthcare incidents have specific notification clocks and stakeholder dynamics; we work with firms that understand them.

Cybersecurity That Holds Up to OCR and to LockBit

Talk to a Nomad practitioner with direct healthcare-IR and HIPAA program experience.

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