Cyber threats in healthcare are no longer isolated IT events. The 2025 Healthcare Cybersecurity Threat Intelligence Report from Trellix warns that as cloud platforms, remote access, and AI-enabled workflows become foundational to care delivery, healthcare environments are increasingly exposed in ways they were never designed for. Systems built for reliability in closed networks now operate in highly interconnected ecosystems, giving adversaries new paths to disrupt care at scale. This shift makes cybersecurity a core executive responsibility, not a back-office technical function.
The reporting shows that 2025’s record breach costs were driven less by ransom amounts and more by prolonged, systemic operational failure. With downtime costing $7,500–$9,000 per minute — roughly $1.9M per day — the financial and clinical impact is devastating. The average healthcare organization experienced 17+ days of downtime per cyberattack, and more than 75% required over 100 days to fully recover.
What’s particularly alarming is how adversaries are exploiting the expanded clinical attack surface:
Internet-connected biomedical devices like infusion pumps are frequently running legacy firmware with known vulnerabilities, default credentials, and outdated operating systems, making them easy entry points for attackers and potential vectors for lateral movement into core clinical networks. In 2025, large-scale analysis found 75% of infusion pumps had known security gaps, many susceptible to critical exploits.
Building and operational technology systems such as HVAC and other OT controllers are now used as footholds — enabling attackers to pivot from apparently benign systems into critical clinical environments, paralyzing services like imaging, clinician workflows, and emergency response coordination.
These vulnerabilities aren’t theoretical, they turn into patient safety crises when systems fail, divert ambulances, slow critical diagnoses, or disrupt medication delivery. (Trellix)
At Wakefield Brunswick, we help healthcare leaders build integrated resiliency programs that:
Identify and prioritize clinical-impacting cyber risk across IT, OT, and IoMT devices
Strengthen continuity planning for essential clinical functions to sustain patient care during incidents
Align cyber risk management with enterprise risk governance and recovery strategies
Reduce operational downtime and protect revenue integrity
Cybersecurity must be reframed as clinical and operational resilience, not just IT defense.
🔗 Full report: https://www.trellix.com/assets/reports/trellix-healthcare-cybersecurity-threat-intelligence-report.pdf
Have a question? Send us an email at team@wakefieldbrunswick.com.