IEEE White Paper

- Active. This document examines cybersecurity gaps within healthcare technology frameworks, analyzing weaknesses in outdated infrastructure, cloud deployments, and connected medical devices. Conventional boundary-focused security approaches fail to counter sophisticated threats targeting healthcare entities, including encryption-based extortion, social manipulation, and unauthorized data extraction. This analysis reveals how identity-centric verification models, employing persistent authentication and contained exposure principles, counter these vulnerabilities through dynamic validation, restricted lateral access, and intelligent response protocols. Effective deployment demands updating authentication systems, reconciling compliance frameworks with technological innovation, and incorporating behavioral considerations. Healthcare institutions that implement comprehensive verification architectures, featuring ongoing identity confirmation, network isolation, and regulatory automation, can significantly reduce cyber exposure while enabling technological advancements.