The IT Nerd

Critical Insight, the Cybersecurity-as-a-Service provider specializing in helping critical organizations Prepare, Detect, and Respond, announced the company’s move to Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR). 

Critical Insight’s evolved monitoring platform provides Critical Insight’s expert security analysts the industry’s most extensive level of customer visibility and detection capabilities. The enhancements include key features and capabilities for customers who wish to interact directly with the Open XDR platform. Integrated with the full toolset of Critical Insight’s Security Operations Center (SOC), the 24/7/365 MXDR service will help customers rapidly identify, respond to, and recover from cyber-attacks. MXDR customers can additionally map the progress of their overall security journey with a fully integrated overlay of cyber risk reporting metrics within a variety of standards and regulatory frameworks.

The evolution of Critical Insight’s platform comes at a crucial time when threat actors are altering and improving their tactics. Critical organizations need three things: best-of-breed tools, subject-matter experts who know how to get the most out of them, and a way to measure success. Critical Insight now provides all three within a single subscription program. 

The new Critical Insight cybersecurity-as-a-service platform is superior to EDR-centric MDR solutions because it provides wider, more comprehensive threat coverage and helps future-proof customers as attacker techniques and technology change. 

For one price, Critical Insight clients will get experienced and customer-centric SOC Analysts and InfoSec Consultants leveraging Stellar Cyber’s Open-XDR and CyberSaint’s CyberStrong Platform. The result is: 

• Deeper Expertise: Skills and Knowledge of Critical Insight
  • Extensive experience in critical infrastructure environments
  • Exclusive talent pool, developed in collaboration with leading universities and public sector institutions
  • Proven onboarding process gets you operational in 30-days
• Deeper Reach: Spot More Threats Sooner
  • Open XDR platform with a broad range of integrations
  • Unmatched support for IoT and OT systems 
  • Built-in user and entity behavioral analytics (UEBA) 
  • Native network detection and response including AI-powered correlation
• Deeper Partnership: Shared Visibility and Security Control
  • Uses your existing tech-stack
  • Ability to search and analyze your data whenever you want
  • Comprehensive, proactive compliance and risk assessments displayed in the CyberStrong platform – over 60 standards to measure against
  • Real-time view into all SOC activity
  • On-demand access to your data
  • Tightly integrated Security-as-a-Service delivery model  

Critical Insight, the Cybersecurity-as-a-Service provider specializing in helping critical organizations Prepare, Detect, and Respond in today’s threat environment, today announced the launch of its H1 2023 Healthcare Data Cyber Breach Report. In this report, Critical Insight builds on its biannual analysis of data breaches reported by healthcare organizations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Critical Insight unveils the state of cybersecurity in the healthcare industry and its complex dynamics through a comprehensive analysis of current cyber threats. Notably, the report revealed a decrease in total breaches but an increase in the number of individuals affected; the focus of attacks on the supply chain and third-party associates; and, particularly noteworthy, the shift in some attackers’ strategies from encryption to extortion.

While the first six months of the year saw an encouraging decrease in the overall number of data breaches impacting healthcare organizations, it was overshadowed by large-scale breaches resulting in a significant increase in the number of individuals affected, which reached record levels. The report found that 2023 is on pace to break the record for individuals affected by breaches. 

Critical Insight’s analysis of breach data supplied to HHS reveals the following key findings.

• Breach Numbers Decrease: Total breaches dropped 15% in the first six months of 2023 compared to the second half of 2022, which is a positive trend considering the steady increase in attacks over the past few years. The reduced number of breaches in the first half of this year suggests that the overall number may be lower for the entire year. This year is on track to record the fewest breaches since 2019 and experience fewer provider breaches compared to the previous three years.
• Exposed Records Increase: Individual records compromised in data breaches surged by 31% in 1H 2023 compared to 2H 2022. Despite declining over the latest reporting period, the number of individuals affected increased from 31M in 2H 2022 to 40M in 1H 2023. With the first half of this year at 40 million, the number in just a six-month reporting period is already 74% of the total number of individuals affected in 2022, representing the highest number on record for six months. 
• Data Breach Causes: Hacking/IT incidents were the primary cause, accounting for 73% of breaches in 1H 2023. Compared to the first-most affected breach type in the previous reporting period, unauthorized access/disclosure was the second-most prevalent type in 1H 2023. Theft, losing records, and improper disposal were relatively insignificant contributors to data breaches.
• Hacker Entry Points: The focus on network server vulnerabilities and the adaptation of defense against email-related hacks point to a continual evolution in the cyber landscape. Hackers have shifted their tactics towards targeting network vulnerabilities. Network server breaches are responsible for a staggering 97% of individual records affected, while only 2% can be attributed to email breaches.
• Evolved Attacker Tactics: Hackers have intensified their attacks on third-party business associates as breaches associated with business associates have steadily risen and were significantly higher than individuals affected in healthcare provider and health plan-related breaches. Of the 40 million exposed records, 48% were linked to business associates, while 43% were associated with healthcare providers. In the first half of 2023, 50% of individuals impacted by a breach had a business associate present. 

To adequately prepare, organizations should: start with an incident response plan and a NIST-CSF-based risk assessment to build a multi-year strategy; track the cyber hygiene of its critical partners essential to maintaining a more secure environment; place robust focus on safeguarding third-party vendors, business associates, and suppliers from vulnerabilities; ensure support from the board, emphasizing the most critical impact for the investment.  

To download the report, please visit https://cybersecurity.criticalinsight.com/healthcare-breach-report-h1-2023.   

Critical Insight, the Cybersecurity-as-a-Service provider specializing in helping critical organizations Prepare, Detect, and Respond in today’s threat environment, announced today the Critical Insight PartnerFirst Program, which has evolved with new features and significant enhancements to recognize and reward partners’ expertise ensuring partners feel supported and invested at each level of the program.

The cybersecurity landscape continually evolves, demanding organizations equip themselves with partners that invest in people, technology, and domain expertise to remain at the forefront of threat detection and management. Purpose-built for today’s security ecosystem, Critical Insight’s Cybersecurity-as-a-Service (CaaS) offers affordable, comprehensive cybersecurity services.

New features of the Critical Insight PartnerFirst Program include:

• The updated pricing structure for Critical Insight’s Managed Services Providers (MSPs) channel.
• Every partner is assigned a Sales Team, including an Account Director, Customer Service Manager, and Security Strategist, to help enable, train, and work through opportunities together.
• Co-marketing opportunities.
• Improved PartnerFirst Portal for registration, news, events, training, and co-branded documentation.

Agents, distributors, MSPs, MSSPs, system integrators, and Value Added Resellers (VARs) are included in the PartnerFirst program based on differing contract vehicles for Resellers versus Referral agreements across all industries, particularly healthcare, education, manufacturing, utilities, and the public sector.

The PartnerFirst program established an innovative tiering framework that provides partners access to various financial and business benefits. The program has evolved to ensure partners feel supported and invested, whereby every partner is assigned a sales support team directly responsible for helping partners increase opportunities and win deals.

Partners enter at the Base Tier and, based on aggregate licenses across their customer base, can achieve dramatic pricing discounts, and new incentives in the year’s second half.

Critical Insight is dedicated to partner success that is customer-centric, effortless to do business with, and provides compelling value to address cybersecurity best practices, proactively monitor, and enable fast remediation.

For more information on the Critical Insight PartnerFirst Program, please visit https://www.criticalinsight.com/about/partners.

Critical Insight, the Cybersecurity-as-a-Service provider specializing in helping critical organizations Prepare, Detect, and Respond in today’s threat environment, announced today the release of the firm’s H2 2022 Healthcare Data Breach Report, which analyzes ​​breach data reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by healthcare organizations. The number of data breaches affecting healthcare providers declined in the second half of 2022, consistent with a downward trend over the past two years, but a deeper dive into the data reveals that current breach totals are still higher than pre-pandemic levels; breaches are affecting more individuals; and hackers are shifting tactics to attack weak links in the healthcare system supply chain, most notably attacking EHR systems. 

The report shows that while the number of data breaches affecting healthcare providers declined in the second half of 2022, the number of individual records exposed by these breaches increased by 35%. The report also highlights the evolving tactics of hackers and the need for healthcare organizations to prioritize preparation, detection, and incident response. Key Findings: Breach numbers are down: Total breaches dropped 9% between the first six months of 2022 and the year’s second half, declining since a high-water mark at the height of the pandemic from 393 breaches in the second half of 2020 to 313 in the latest reporting period. Records affected are up: The number of individual records exposed by breaches skyrocketed by 35% in the second half of 2022 to hit 28 million. 

In other words, fewer but more significant breaches reflect consolidation within the industry and the evolving tactics of attackers. Hacking remains high: Most data breaches are due to hacking. Healthcare organizations have done an excellent job of shoring up their policies around handling and storing medical records. Hacking accounted for 79% of all incidents and 84% of individual records exposed in 2022. Most common breach causes: Unauthorized access/disclosure now affects more records per breach than any other breach type. On average, the number of individuals affected per unauthorized access/disclosure breach spiked from 5,700 in the first half of 2022 to over 143,000 in the second half. By comparison, the average number of individuals affected per hacking breach grew from 73,900 to 87,000 in 2022. 

Who’s getting breached?: Attackers continue to attack hospitals but have found increasing success targeting business associates and third-party vendors such as electronic medical record providers, lawyers, accountants, billing companies, and medical device manufacturers. In the second half of 2022, more records were exposed due to breaches at business associates (48%) than actual healthcare providers (47%). 

What they’re watching: Attacks against EMR systems which were non-existent in past years, spiked to 7% in the first half of 2022 and 4% in the second half of 2022. For the full year 2022, EMR-related breaches accounted for 6 million individual records exposed.

This report provides valuable insights into the current state of healthcare breaches and the need for organizations to implement a comprehensive security strategy, including risk assessments, third-party risk management, and incident response planning.

To download the report, please visit https://cybersecurity.criticalinsight.com/healthcare-breach-report-h2-2022.