
Advancements in AI present healthcare professionals with both opportunities and challenges. AI can personalise healthcare through digitisation and advance research efforts, but in the hands of threat actors, it is a tool used for sophisticated cyberattacks.
There is no disputing that technology’s ability to streamline operational efficiency would be a welcome boon to Singapore’s healthcare industry, which faces the need to grow its workforce to 82,000 by 2030. AI can help by increasing operational efficiency.
For example, in Thailand, N Health, a healthcare services provider, modernised its ageing infrastructure with new, scalable technologies. This strategic upgrade has strengthened operational efficiency and resilience, enabling partner hospitals to deliver higher-quality patient experiences while supporting N Health’s regional expansion.
Healthcare systems are also under pressure to reduce staff burnout, reduce technology costs, stand out among competitors, and grow patient numbers and other revenue streams. At the same time, healthcare IT professionals have their hands busy fighting off ongoing cyber disruption campaigns. According to the 2024 Global Threat Intelligence report, threat actors use GenAI to enhance social engineering and phishing attacks and share false information. Data breaches caused by ransomware, extortion, and other tactics result in significant financial losses to victims.
That said, IT professionals can protect their organisation’s critical systems by levelling up their cybersecurity maturity and defending against cyberattacks by taking the following actions:
Build your AI strategy early
When integrating AI into your operations, it’s essential to start with a strategy that incorporates security and resilience from the beginning, as retrofitting these elements can introduce unnecessary challenges.
By aligning your AI use cases with your organisation’s specific needs—whether you’re a research hospital, a clinical facility, or both—you establish a solid foundation to achieve results. Once your use cases are defined, you can assess potential risks and address them by determining what data is required for your models, who needs access to it, and how to secure it effectively.
Given the complexities of AI in healthcare, collaborating with external IT and security experts can provide crucial insights. These advisors can help you design a robust, future-ready AI strategy that avoids common pitfalls. Ensuring you have the right expertise in place will keep your AI initiatives secure, accelerate adoption and drive progress without unnecessary setbacks.
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Advance your cybersecurity maturity
Reducing your attack surface is also critical to limiting how threat actors can infiltrate and what they can access. With sensitive medical data at stake, Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH), Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and Synapxe has introduced the Cybersecurity Labelling Scheme (CLS) for Medical Devices.
This scheme establishes essential security benchmarks for medical devices, guiding healthcare providers in procuring more secure equipment to enhance protection and ensure compliance. Taking these steps strengthens your defences while meeting regulatory requirements.
Real-time detection and response are further elements that are essential for safeguarding healthcare IT systems. AI-powered tools like Managed Detection and Response (MDR) enable you to quickly identify and mitigate threats. Manage AI-specific risks by implementing AI guardrails, such as those offered through AI Proxy services, and regular penetration testing to ensure your systems remain secure and reliable.
Recovery planning should address more than cyberattacks: Prepare for system failures or AI disruptions, such as faulty outputs from Large Language Models (LLMs). The ability to swiftly roll back AI systems to prior versions is critical to maintaining operations. A solid strategy includes regular backups of data and systems, well-defined incident response plans, and immutable vaults.
Protect backups to avoid costly recoveries
According to The State of Ransomware 2024 study, the average cost of cyber recovery, excluding ransomware payments, totalled US$2.73 million. The study also found that 98 per cent of organisations were able to recover encrypted data, with backups serving as the No. 1 recovery method.
It is crucial to protect your backups, given that 94 per cent of organisations impacted by ransomware in 2023 said threat actors attempted to compromise their backups during attacks. AI can strengthen your backup systems by automating backup scheduling, detecting anomalies like corrupted files or incomplete backups, and identifying and eliminating duplicate data.
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Safeguard healthcare data and restore operations faster
According to a 2025 Dell Technologies survey, 64 per cent of business and IT decision makers say recovering the business to meet Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) would be difficult after a cyberattack. You can position your healthcare IT system to avoid this challenge.
To better protect your data, you must plan, prepare and practice as if an attack is inevitable, with an emphasis on quickly restoring operations with minimal disruption. You can lead a swift recovery and minimise data loss by using these AI-integrated solutions:
- Immutable and isolated storage: Immutable backups cannot be altered or deleted. Storing backups in an isolated environment protects them from cyberattacks on your healthcare IT system.
- Data encryption: Encryption locks your data with a digital key, ensuring only authorised users can decode and access it.
- Data validation: Validation verifies the accuracy and integrity of data, guaranteeing your backups can be trusted and used when needed.
By advancing cybersecurity maturity with AI-enhanced backup and recovery methods, you can build a resilient and secure healthcare IT system that enables you to quickly recover from cyberattacks while minimising downtime. This can set you apart in the market and instil confidence among patients, healthcare professionals, partners and investors.
With the power of AI, healthcare professionals can continue delivering better patient care.
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