INDUSTRY FACT FILE · HEALTHCARE & HEALTHTECH

Cybersecurity FAQs for Healthcare and Healthtech

Forty frequently asked questions and answers in five categories, written for hospital leadership, CIOs, CISOs, clinical, biomedical, quality and privacy teams.

In this document 1.  Category 1: Cyber risk, governance and strategy 2.  Category 2: Regulation and compliance 3.  Category 3: Clinical systems, devices and applications 4.  Category 4: Ransomware, SOC and incident response 5.  Category 5: Privacy, cloud, vendors and AI

Audience: Boards, CEOs, medical directors and CIOs

Q1. Why is healthcare a top cyber target?

Health data is valuable and hospitals need systems urgently, which makes ransomware and data theft attractive to attackers.

Q2. What are the biggest risks?

Ransomware, patient data leakage, medical IoT attacks, report portal exposure, vendor compromise, legacy systems and slow detection.

Q3. Which incidents illustrate the risk?

The 2022 ransomware attack on AIIMS New Delhi forced manual operations, and a 2024 attack on a US health-payment processor disrupted claims nationwide.

Q4. Is cybersecurity a patient-safety issue?

Yes. Outages delay diagnosis and treatment, and compromised devices can affect care.

Q5. What should leadership review?

Ransomware readiness, restore times, device inventory, test results, incidents, vendor risks and DPDP readiness.

Q6. Who should own cybersecurity?

Management with the CIO/CISO, involving clinical, biomedical, quality and privacy leaders.

Q7. How should we prioritise investment?

Segment networks, protect backups, monitor 24x7 and test critical applications; then expand to medical IoT and advanced testing.

Q8. How can Codec Networks help?

Codec Networks provides hospital VAPT, ransomware readiness, managed SOC, medical IoT security and patient data protection programmes.

Audience: Compliance, quality and privacy teams

Q9. Is there a health-specific data protection law?

Not a separate one; the DPDP Act, 2023 and DPDP Rules, 2025 apply to personal data, including health data.

Q10. When do DPDP obligations apply?

The DPDP Rules were notified on 13 November 2025 with phased commencement; most obligations take effect in May 2027.

Q11. What about the SPDI Rules?

The IT (SPDI) Rules, 2011 classify medical records as sensitive personal data and require reasonable security practices until replaced as DPDP provisions commence.

Q12. Do CERT-In Directions apply to hospitals?

Yes. Cyber incidents must be reported within six hours and ICT logs kept for 180 days in India.

Q13. What does ABDM require?

Participants exchanging records through ABDM follow its consent-based model and data management policies.

Q14. Do telemedicine providers have rules?

Yes. The Telemedicine Practice Guidelines (2020) set standards for teleconsultation, including records and privacy.

Q15. Do accreditation standards cover cybersecurity?

Accreditation standards include information management requirements; security evidence supports assessments.

Q16. Can Codec Networks support compliance?

Yes. Codec Networks is CERT-In empanelled and supports DPDP readiness, CERT-In alignment and audit evidence.

Audience: CIOs, biomedical engineering and application teams

Q17. How should HIS, EMR, LIS and PACS be tested?

With planned, care-safe VAPT covering authentication, authorisation, integrations and infrastructure.

Q18. How do we secure medical devices?

Inventory every device, segment device networks, control vendor access and monitor device traffic.

Q19. What if devices cannot be patched?

Use compensating controls: segmentation, strict access rules, monitoring and vendor coordination.

Q20. How should report portals be secured?

Use unguessable, expiring links, enforce authorisation, rate-limit downloads and monitor bulk access.

Q21. How do we secure telemedicine apps?

Test sessions, storage and APIs, and review third-party SDKs for health data sharing.

Q22. How should EMR access be controlled?

Role-based access, break-glass procedures, audit logs and regular reviews.

Q23. How should ABDM integrations be tested?

Verify consent checks, purpose limitation and logging for every record request.

Q24. How do we manage vendor remote access?

Broker it through monitored, time-bound sessions with named accounts and MFA.

Audience: IT, SOC, clinical and operations teams

Q25. How should hospitals prepare for ransomware?

Segment networks, keep immutable offline backups, know restore times, practise downtime procedures and monitor 24x7.

Q26. What are downtime procedures?

Documented paper-based and manual processes that let care continue when systems are unavailable.

Q27. Do hospitals need a SOC?

Yes. Many use managed SOC services to monitor clinical and IT systems around the clock.

Q28. What should incident playbooks include?

Clinical continuity, containment, evidence preservation, CERT-In reporting within six hours, and patient and partner communication.

Q29. How long must logs be retained?

CERT-In requires ICT logs for a rolling 180 days within India.

Q30. Should we run tabletop exercises?

Yes—with clinical, IT and management teams, using ransomware and data leakage scenarios.

Q31. Should we pay a ransom?

This is a management and legal decision; preparation reduces the pressure, and payment does not guarantee recovery or deletion of stolen data.

Q32. When should forensics be engaged?

Immediately when compromise is suspected, to scope impact and preserve evidence.

Audience: Privacy, cloud, vendor and innovation teams

Q33. How should patient consent be handled?

Provide clear notices, capture and record consent where required, and honour withdrawal.

Q34. What data should we minimise?

Collect and share only what care, billing and law require; avoid sending health data to analytics or advertising tools.

Q35. How should cloud health platforms be secured?

Private storage, encryption, least-privilege access, logging and posture monitoring.

Q36. How should HIS and PACS vendors be assessed?

Review their security practices, remote access, patching and incident commitments.

Q37. How should insurer and TPA interfaces be secured?

Authenticate partners, minimise data and monitor exchanges.

Q38. What AI risks apply in healthcare?

Unvalidated AI tools, data leakage to AI services and manipulated inputs; govern and test AI before clinical use.

Q39. How do we handle data breaches?

Contain, assess, report to CERT-In within six hours and, once DPDP provisions commence, intimate the Data Protection Board and affected individuals.

Q40. How can we start with Codec Networks?

Begin with a scoping call on your facilities, systems and partners; Codec Networks will propose a care-safe assessment plan.

Contact Codec Networks Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi: 507, 5th Floor, New Delhi House, Barakhamba Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi – 110001 Gurugram: 707, 7th Floor, Silverton Tower, Golf Course Extension Road, Sector 50, Gurugram – 122018, Haryana Landline: 011 430 496 96 | 011 437 522 99   Mobile: +91 99716 76124 | +91 88007 88220 | +91 88003 31124 Email: mktg@codecnetworks.com   Web: www.codecnetworks.com

Note: These FAQs provide general guidance as of October 2026 and do not constitute legal, regulatory or clinical advice. Confirm obligations against the official instruments.