Preventing Cyberattacks in Healthcare
with Artificial Intelligence

Challenged by Healthcare Cyberattacks

After analyzing the effect of recent healthcare cyberattacks on organizations, the Veriti report also found that:

• 50% lack confidence in detecting and resolving data breaches

• 51% lack the technologies needed for breach prevention

• 47% lack the expertise to resolve breaches effectively

There is clearly a significant gap between the cybersecurity challenges faced by healthcare organizations, and their own ability to manage those challenges. One emerging solution is using AI to prevent cyberattacks in healthcare.

AI to the Rescue: Fighting Healthcare Cyberattacks

How can AI be used to predict and prevent cyberattacks?

Artificial Intelligence, as the latest iteration within the technological landscape, is a fresh and in-depth solution that provides constant real-time monitoring and predictive analytics using historical and real-time data. It also delivers automated responses to prevent sensitive patient information from getting into the wrong hands, and it enables administrations to make better data-driven decisions.

Artificial Intelligence is capable of a plethora of different techniques and methods for preventing cyberattacks in healthcare. AI can learn from normal behavior patterns within a system, detect patterns or unusual behavior, and draw conclusions from network traffic. In addition, using Machine Learning, AI can be leveraged within an antivirus to keep up with the rapidly changing nature of these attacks.

Predictive analytics and automated incident responses further bolster these capabilities, as the AI system uses historical data to accurately predict potential ransomware threats and automatically respond to them when ransomware is detected. Whether it's isolating infected systems, initiating backups, or other response actions, AI in cybersecurity can serve as the solution hospitals have been desperately in need of.

Advanced AI Technology

As mentioned briefly, these techniques result from underlying technologies like natural language processing, machine learning (ML), and its subset, deep learning. These three work in tandem to understand and identify behaviors, patterns, and anomalies. Additionally, equally important technologies, such as big data analytics and cloud computing can serve as pillars for ingesting, safely storing, and analyzing the data in question. Furthermore, these resources are cost-effective and can be seamlessly integrated with the aid of skilled software engineers to fight cyberattacks in healthcare.

AI in Cybersecurity Across Industries

Other industries have been implementing Artificial Intelligence to tackle exploitative ransomware attacks, including transportation, education, telecommunications, e-commerce, retail, and finance. Representing these industries are companies like AT&T, JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, Tesla, and Turnitin.

All these conglomerates are leveraging AI to prevent or respond to all kinds of attacks, in addition to ransomware attacks. As a result of using these technologies and techniques, these organizations are experiencing faster incident response times, reduced fraud, an improved level of threat detection, and overall fortified cybersecurity.

Moreover, AI’s capacity to differentiate between abnormal and normal behaviors with accuracy can help security teams focus on genuine risks while mitigating false positive alerts. Automated incident responses can streamline the processes further during a security breach, whether through isolation or initiating backup protocols.

The AI-driven approach can also boost compliance with data protection regulations, equipping organizations across industries with insights on emerging threats to strengthen vulnerability management.

Stronger Cybersecurity for Patients Everywhere

Fundamentally, because hospitals are a key part of any functioning society, as we continue to evolve technologically and medically, cyberattacks and security breaches in healthcare also become more complex. Looking at recent healthcare cyberattacks, new technology, specifically AI, can be the constantly-on solution hospitals need.

Experienced software developers can seamlessly integrate AI into established platforms and systems within hospitals to foster more secure cybersecurity. Patient trust is pivotal, and with AI safeguarding sensitive medical information, it can lead to better collective defense against ever-changing cyber risks.

Gartner, Top Business Trends in the Healthcare Provider Industry for 2025, April 4, 2025.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Produced & Edited by: Juan Requena & Allison Peart