2026-10-14T12:14:50Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34037568 2026-10-01T01:27:32Z category_28924 portal_947 item_type_14 month_year_10_2026

Cybersecurity Measurability: Three Magnified Vulnerabilities of USA Healthcare William Yurcik (20311230) Andreas Schick (20311233) Stephen North (25147329) Michael Thorsten Gastner (14322969) Fabio Roberto de Miranda (20311236) Rodolpho da Silva Avelino (22938373) Andre Filipe de Moreas Batista (22938376) Gregory Pluta (20311242) Ian Brooks (4413928) Cybersecurity and privacy not elsewhere classified Hospital ransomware attacks Change Healthcare Critical access care hospitals Rural hospital closures <p dir="ltr">There are two defining characteristics of a healthcare provider: (1) geographic location and services available at their physical structure and (2) services available via their virtual Internet presence. For centuries we have focused on the first defining characteristic - now we need to shift our focus to understand and address issues that may arise from the new second defining characteristic.</p><p dir="ltr">This chapter is an updated summary of a paper originally presented at the ACM Cybersecurity in Healthcare (HealthSec) Workshop in October 2024 [<a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-13800-2_6#ref-CR39" target="_blank">39</a>]. We address issues related to Internet connectivity and virtual presence of USA healthcare providers, especially hospitals, when ransomware cyberattacks resulting in service outages occur. We show the cybersecurity posture of a large critical national infrastructure (USA healthcare) can be measured, mapped, and quantitatively baselined. Empirical measurability results reveal systemic issues in USA healthcare presenting “magnified vulnerabilities” in that a single exploit can have an outsized impact on an entire nationwide infrastructure. As the initial step toward addressing this issue, we identify the three magnified cybersecurity vulnerabilities of USA healthcare: (1) shared IT infrastructure; (2) market concentration; and (3) the geographical distribution of hospitals across the USA.</p> 2026-01-02T00:00:00Z Text Conference contribution 10.1007/978-3-032-13800-2_6 https://figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Cybersecurity_Measurability_Three_Magnified_Vulnerabilities_of_USA_Healthcare/34037568 In Copyright