Shared Threats, Shared Solutions: The Cybersecurity Intersection of Healthcare and Fintech

Imagine waking up to find that your company—the backbone of healthcare or financial services for millions—has been brought to its knees overnight. Systems are frozen, patients or customers can’t access critical services, and the ransom demand countdown has begun.

This isn’t an unrealistic “what if” scenario — it’s a real-life risk for the fintech and healthcare industries. Giants like United Health, that were crippled for days by a ransomware attack had left doctors, patients, and insurers in the dark. They can attest that this is a reality. Fintech and healthcare might not have much in common on the surface, but they share a terrifying vulnerability — the looming threat of a cybersecurity disaster that could dismantle their operations and their trust at any moment.

Both industries handle vast amounts of highly sensitive data. Both industries are listed as top targets for attackers. Both industries face strict regulatory requirements to safeguard data. Both face severe financial and reputational damage in the event of a data breach, with legal implications and loss of consumer trust. Both are highly vulnerable to insider threats, given the privileged access employees often have to sensitive data. Both will deal with disruption to their businesses. While not comprehensive, these parallels highlight shared challenges in protecting healthcare and fintech digital ecosystems.

The recent news about the Fidelity breach that impacted 77,000 customers gives us some lessons in shared vulnerabilities and underscores the shared concerns, challenges and issues between healthcare and fintech. The breach involved the exposure of sensitive client data, including personally identifiable information (PII) and financial details, making it clear that even industry giants are not immune to cybersecurity threats. This breach illustrates the immediate financial damage, regulatory scrutiny, and reputational harm that both sectors fear.

This type of breach is similar to the type of attack healthcare organizations dread, and unfortunately have suffered. Healthcare data, like financial data, is extremely valuable on the black market, making both industries prime targets. The breach serves as a sobering reminder for fintech and healthcare leaders alike: no organization, regardless of size or resources, is invulnerable.

So how can the fintech and healthcare industries both can learn from one another to bolster their defenses even further? By exchanging best practices, the healthcare and fintech sectors can create a more resilient digital ecosystem. Here is a starter playbook on how to accomplish just that.

What Fintech Can Learn from Healthcare
Fintech companies can gain valuable insights from the healthcare sector’s proactive approaches to cybersecurity, particularly in the areas of threat detection, incident response, and human error mitigation. There’s and amplified impact when the aftermath of an attack can affect not only the privacy of members but also the wellbeing of patients undergoing treatment. The ubiquitous nature of technology provides the necessary motivation to exert effective action.

Incident Response Planning: The recent ransomware attack previously mentioned on United Health left the healthcare giant incapacitated for days, with critical systems down and patient services severely disrupted. The breach exposed vulnerabilities in their infrastructure, highlighting the devastating impact of such cyberattacks on both operations and patient care. Major ransomware attacks like United Health and WannaCry, which affected hospitals worldwide, have caused many healthcare organizations to develop robust incident response plans to minimize the impact of cybersecurity breaches. Organizations understand the importance of creating immediate containment strategies, comprehensive data backups, and system redundancies that allow operations to continue even during or after an attack. Developing and continuously testing incident response plans can help limit the damage from an attack, ensuring business continuity.

Human Error Mitigation: Human error remains one of the biggest contributors to data breaches across industries. A study from Proofpoint found that 85% of breaches are linked to employee mistakes, such as falling for phishing schemes or failing to follow cybersecurity protocols. Healthcare has responded to this challenge by implementing regular training programs that emphasize the importance of security hygiene, such as identifying phishing emails and creating strong passwords. By fostering a security-first culture, healthcare organizations have reduced the risk of breaches caused by human error—a lesson fintech companies should adopt to build a more resilient workforce.

What Healthcare Can Learn from Fintech
The healthcare industry has been a consistent target for cyberattacks due to the sheer volume of sensitive personal health information (PHI) it stores and processes. According to IBM’s 2023 “Cost of a Data Breach” report, healthcare breaches cost organizations an average of $10.93 million per incident, the highest among all industries. These attacks can be especially devastating, with consequences that affect patient care and put lives at risk.

And, while healthcare has developed robust cybersecurity protocols, it also has much to learn from fintech’s rapid adoption of cutting-edge technology and its agility in navigating regulatory challenges.

Agility in Innovation: The fintech industry is known for its agility in adopting innovative technologies which provide secure authentication methods. Just recently, Mastercard expanded its cybersecurity services by acquiring global threat intelligence company Recorded Future. These technologies have the potential to significantly improve data security by adding extra layers of encryption and reducing the risk of unauthorized access. Healthcare, often slower to adopt new technologies due to regulatory constraints, can take a cue from fintech’s willingness to experiment with and deploy advanced security solutions. Implementing technologies like biometric authentication could help healthcare organizations significantly reduce data breach risks.

Real-Time Fraud Detection: Fintech has excelled in real-time fraud detection, which is crucial for industries dealing with large-scale financial transactions. Sophisticated fraud detection algorithms that analyze transactions in real-time and flag suspicious activity have been developed, tested, and deployed successfully. Healthcare, which often processes real-time insurance claims and medical payments, can benefit from adopting similar fraud detection systems. Leveraging these tools could help healthcare providers better protect their financial systems and prevent fraudulent activity.

Compliance Automation: Both industries face stringent regulatory requirements—HIPAA for healthcare and PCI-DSS for fintech. However, fintech has made strides in automating compliance processes to reduce the administrative burden and improve security. Automated compliance solutions allow fintech companies to continuously monitor systems for compliance violations and fix issues before they escalate. Healthcare organizations, which often struggle with manual compliance management, can adopt these automated tools to ensure continuous regulatory compliance, particularly as data privacy regulations evolve.

Shared Lessons: Cross-Industry Collaboration
Both healthcare and fintech have established successful threat-sharing networks—H-ISAC in healthcare and FS-ISAC in fintech. These frameworks highlight the value of collaboration, but there’s untapped potential in expanding this effort across industries. Cross-industry intelligence sharing can give both sectors a broader view of emerging threats, leading to stronger defenses.

For example, fintech often integrates fraud detection into cybersecurity teams, recognizing fraud as a security risk. Healthcare, where fraud prevention traditionally falls under compliance or billing, could benefit from this approach by better identifying patterns that reveal deeper vulnerabilities.

Additionally, fintech’s convergence of cyber and physical security under a Chief Security Officer (CSO) or Chief Risk Officer (CRO) offers a model that healthcare, particularly hospitals, could adopt. This holistic strategy ensures that both physical and cyber threats are managed cohesively, preparing organizations for hybrid attacks. The role of Risk Officers in both sectors underscores the importance of balancing regulatory demands, operational risk, and cybersecurity, highlighting a mutual focus on governance and compliance.

Conclusion: A Shared Path Forward
The growing threat of cyberattacks requires industries to continuously evolve their defenses. Both fintech and healthcare face similar challenges in safeguarding sensitive data, but they have each developed unique strategies to tackle these issues. Healthcare’s multi-layered defense mechanisms, including AI-driven threat detection and robust incident response planning, offer valuable insights for fintech. Conversely, fintech’s agility in adopting innovative technologies and automating compliance processes can serve as a blueprint for healthcare organizations looking to enhance their cybersecurity posture.

Breaches like those at Fidelity and United Health serves as a critical reminder that even the most established organizations remain vulnerable to cyberattacks. This incident reinforces the urgency for fintech and healthcare to embrace a collaborative cybersecurity approach, sharing best practices and adopting advanced, proactive defenses. These breaches also highlights the need for real-time incident response plans that contain damage swiftly and effectively. Both industries must not only focus on prevention but also ensure that their recovery strategies are as robust as their defenses.

By learning from one another and fostering greater cross-industry collaboration, fintech and healthcare can create stronger, more resilient defenses against cyber threats. In an era where data is increasingly valuable, the future of cybersecurity lies in industries working together to share insights and innovations that keep both patient health and financial assets safe.

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