The Internet of Things (IoT), cloud services, and artificial intelligence are increasing cyber vulnerabilities among healthcare organizations, compelling them to adopt new security systems, according to a new Frost & Sullivan analysis. Moreover, future healthcare IT spending is expected to increase across network perimeter protection, endpoint protection, access management, public-facing properties, detecting and mitigating exploits, and managed services, driving this market toward $8.7 billion by 2023.

The industry has numerous niche players that deliver specific cybersecurity solutions to address various healthcare security concerns, Frost & Sullivan officials say. These companies, as well as the larger ones, can gain additional growth opportunities by:

  • Applying integrated security across the clinical workflow instead of a collection of point solutions
  • Providing solutions that can scale to potentially thousands of devices and offer endpoint protection for mobile devices
  • Establishing flexible approaches for the acquisition of cybersecurity suites
  • Incorporating capabilities that decrease complexity and increase productivity
  • Enabling new forms of security management such as location-based access and biometrics
  • Addressing the budget concerns of healthcare IT by offering flexible pricing models

“The healthcare market is a prime target of hackers looking for protected health information,” notes Mike Jude, digital health research manager. “The lack of cybersecurity expertise is prompting healthcare IT organizations to seek managed support, which, in turn, is accelerating the move to cloud-based computing services.”

He adds: “To make optimum use of the opportunities, cybersecurity vendors need to develop solutions that integrate with existing healthcare IT systems and applications. The solutions must be able to accommodate and scale with new technologies such as IoT, cloud, and big data.”