Many hospitals across the United States rely on legacy applications, which are integrated within their EHR. The HIMSS 2024 Cyber Security survey, however, shows that 43% of respondents recognize the importance of upgrading legacy software to protect against cybersecurity threats. This reveals an understanding that certain legacy applications can slow clinical workflows and increase the risk of security breaches that disrupt patient care.
Why Legacy Applications Create Security Gaps
Legacy applications remain challenging to secure because their architecture is outdated, their complexity increases over time, and vendors often stop supporting them. This is not just recognized as an issue by providers, but a study by Bain and Company shows that more than 65% of payer organizations say that legacy systems are a problem as well.
Many hospitals continue to operate EHRs on legacy software that no longer receives security updates. Cybercriminals exploit these unpatched environments using vulnerabilities that have been public for years. Ransomware groups frequently target smaller community hospitals that rely on legacy applications, knowing limited staff and budgets make recovery slower and more costly.
Because legacy apps require specialized support, IT and clinical teams often export data manually or transfer files through unsecured methods. Each manual step increases the chance of human error. Hospitals also dedicate significant staff time to troubleshooting and custom patching. As IT teams focus on short-term fixes, they lose the capacity to identify and close emerging vulnerabilities before those weaknesses cause service disruptions or data breaches.
Managing Risk in Aging EHR Environments
Replacing a legacy app is challenging and sometimes not possible. Hospitals must preserve historical data, maintain clinical workflows, and meet strict regulatory requirements. However, IT leaders can still reduce risk by introducing consistent oversight and targeted cybersecurity practices that align with their environment and patient care processes.
Vulnerability Management: Continuous vulnerability management identifies misconfiguration, unpatched software, and high-risk interfaces before they can be exploited. By using real-world threat intelligence to prioritize remediation, organizations can focus on resources where they matter most. Continuous assessment reduces exposure of windows and strengthens compliance with HIPAA and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) frameworks. This fully outsourced service includes routine scanning across all in-scope devices to detect missing updates and exploited vulnerabilities, and our team alerts hospital staff with clear remediation guidance. Many organizations begin with an initial assessment to establish a baseline and understand where immediate improvements are needed.
CISO as a Service (CISOaaS): Many healthcare organizations lack the resources for a full-time Chief Information Security Officer. CISOaaS provides on-demand access to senior cybersecurity expertise, offering strategic oversight, risk management, and policy development tailored to healthcare’s regulatory landscape. This service helps align technology investments with business goals while fostering a security-aware culture. Our approach functions as a complete CISO office, giving hospitals access to a team of security advisors who conduct a maturity assessment and build a long-term roadmap to strengthen governance and operational security.
SOC as a Service (SOCaaS): Building an in-house Security Operations Center (SOC) requires significant investment. SOCaaS delivers 24/7 monitoring, real-time threat detection, and rapid incident response as a managed solution. Leveraging advanced analytics and threat intelligence, it enables early detection and swift action to protect patient data and critical systems. As a fully outsourced SOC, we take on day-to-day security operations and ingest each hospital’s log data directly into our monitoring environment. Organizations gain access to our Horizon Portal for real-time visibility into SOC activity, which can be reviewed from any mobile device for quick situational awareness.
The Measurable Benefits of Strengthened Security
A focused cybersecurity program delivers measurable improvements across hospital operations, compliance, and patient care:
Fewer disruptions and faster response times: Continuous monitoring reduces outages, improves incident detection, and shortens recovery periods after security events.
Stronger compliance performance: Effective governance helps hospitals avoid HIPAA and HITECH penalties and demonstrates accountability during audits and regulatory reviews.
Better use of internal resources: By outsourcing security monitoring and executive oversight, hospitals can redirect IT and clinical staff toward innovation, modernization, and digital transformation projects.
Improved patient outcomes: When staff spend less time resolving preventable incidents, they can focus more on clinical initiatives that directly benefit patient care.
Enhanced operational resilience: Enhanced visibility and rapid containment allow hospitals to maintain continuity even during cyber incidents, minimizing disruptions and reinforcing trust among patients, partners, and regulators.
Time to Move Forward
Outdated legacy applications can directly interfere with patient care if attackers compromise against them. A ransomware attack can have serious consequences like locking clinicians out of records can delay surgeries, interrupting medication orders, and more. Recovering from such an incident consumes staff time, costs millions of dollars, and damages community trust.
Hospitals can avoid those outcomes by opting for a strategic cyber security approach to secures current applications and EHR system. The goal is to protect patient data while ensuring uninterrupted care as cyber threats continue to evolve.
Connect with a member of our Cybersecurity Team to help you understand where your EHR systems stand and how we can support your security goals.
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