The shift to remote healthcare delivery has permanently altered the cybersecurity landscape. With clinicians accessing patient data from home offices, physicians reviewing medical images from coffee shops, and nurses updating records via tablets during home visits, the traditional network perimeter has effectively dissolved. The growth of telehealth, accelerated by recent global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, has transformed healthcare delivery from a facility-centric model to a distributed ecosystem.
This new reality creates unprecedented security challenges. As Yiyi Miao, Chief Product Officer at OPSWAT, explains, "Traditional network security models operate on the assumption that users and devices within the network perimeter are trustworthy. However, with clinicians increasingly accessing sensitive patient data from home offices and providing telehealth services, this perimeter-based trust model becomes inadequate. Such remote access scenarios expose healthcare organizations to risks such as unauthorized access, data breaches, and compliance violations."
For healthcare organizations, the stakes couldn't be higher. protected health information (PHI) accessed from countless remote endpoints creates an expanded attack surface, while HIPAA compliance requirements remain as stringent as ever. Traditional security approaches simply cannot address these challenges effectively.
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Zero Trust Access (ZTA) have emerged as architectural frameworks designed precisely for this borderless healthcare environment.
The "castle-and-moat" security model—where everything inside the network is trusted and everything outside is not—simply doesn't work when clinicians regularly operate outside organizational walls. This traditional approach introduces several critical vulnerabilities.
Research about privacy and security in mobile health identifies six major trends that make traditional health IT security approaches weak:
When data and users routinely exist outside the physical network, relying solely on firewalls becomes dangerously insufficient. Even with proper perimeter security, the moment clinicians step outside the facility with their devices, they bypass these protections entirely. The security boundary that once defined clear insider and outsider status has become porous and ineffective.
As the research above notes, "Traditional approaches to securing healthcare systems have relied on isolation, using tools like firewalls and network access control. However, these trends make it unfeasible to simply 'lock down' medical devices or health-records systems, especially because patients and staff use part of the system outside the clinical context."
Read more: The importance of firewalls in healthcare security
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), long considered the standard for remote access, introduce significant challenges for healthcare organizations. According to a study in the Journal of Physics, "In COVID-19 Pandemic, Internet traffic has been increased by up to 90%. Work-from-home culture is initiated by almost every organization," placing unprecedented strain on VPN infrastructure.
Their research identified multiple critical vulnerabilities in VPN implementations that directly impact healthcare security. The authors documented 479 total VPN vulnerabilities cataloged in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database, with 28 new vulnerabilities discovered in just the first eight months of 2020. These vulnerabilities include:
These vulnerabilities create significant risks in healthcare contexts where data security directly impacts patient privacy and potentially patient safety. The researchers conclude that "VPN networks are at high risk. Hackers are continuously identifying CVE and apply Auxiliaries/payloads to exploit the entire network."
The rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies means clinicians frequently access sensitive information from personal smartphones and tablets. These devices connect through potentially vulnerable home and public Wi-Fi networks, creating security blind spots for IT departments. Without visibility into device security posture or network conditions, healthcare organizations struggle to maintain consistent security controls. When a physician reviews lab results on their personal tablet while connected to a café's public Wi-Fi, traditional security approaches offer little protection.
Related: Making Wi-Fi HIPAA compliant
The research on privacy and security in mobile health emphasizes this challenge, "Mobile consumer devices like smartphones and tablets are quickly being adopted by patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers for health and wellness applications in addition to their many other uses, making it difficult to protect sensitive health-related data and functions from the risks posed by general-purpose devices connected to the Internet."
Every remote device and connection point becomes a potential entry point for attackers. Without proper controls, a single compromised clinician device could provide access to entire healthcare networks and databases. The attack surface grows exponentially with each remote user and device, making comprehensive security monitoring difficult. This expanded vulnerability landscape requires a fundamentally different approach to security.
Zero Trust Access represents a shift in security philosophy that addresses the core challenges of securing mobile healthcare workers. As Yiyi Miao explains, "Zero Trust access (ZTA) addresses some of these challenges by enforcing strict access controls, continuously verifying user identities and device status, and ensuring that only authorized and compliant devices can access critical resources, regardless of their location. ZTA is a specific security model and set of principles emphasizing verification over trust."
The foundation of Zero Trust, according to NIST, is simple: "Never Trust, Always Verify." Unlike traditional models, ZTA assumes that threats exist both outside and inside the network. No user or device is trusted by default, regardless of their location or previous access privileges. This principle changes how security is applied across healthcare environments, creating a consistent security posture that follows clinicians wherever they work.
Zero Trust employs several key mechanisms to protect healthcare environments. Strict identity verification requires authentication before granting any access. For healthcare professionals, this means multi-factor authentication, potentially biometric verification, context-aware checks considering location and time of day, and continuous identity validation throughout sessions. Simply having login credentials is insufficient; multiple verification factors ensure the person accessing patient records is truly the authorized clinician.
Beyond user verification, ZTA continuously evaluates device security status through device posture assessment. This includes ensuring operating systems are patched and up-to-date, verifying endpoint protection is active and current, checking for signs of compromise or malware, and confirming encryption is enabled for data at rest. This is necessary for healthcare, where a compromised device could expose massive amounts of sensitive patient information.
Zero Trust implements the principle of least privilege, granting users access only to the specific applications and data they need for their immediate task, not broad network access. A cardiologist, for example, might receive access only to their specific patients' cardiac records rather than the entire patient database. This granular approach reduces the potential damage from compromised accounts.
The architecture also employs micro-segmentation, dividing networks into isolated zones to prevent lateral movement by attackers. This containment strategy means that even if a breach occurs, it remains limited to a small segment rather than exposing the entire healthcare network. For healthcare organizations with diverse departments and data types, this segmentation provides protection for the most sensitive patient information.
Unlike traditional "authenticate once" approaches, ZTA continuously monitors sessions for suspicious activities and regularly re-verifies identity and device security posture. If anything changes, such as connecting to an unsecured network or unusual access patterns, privileges can be immediately revoked. This continuous verification creates a dynamic security environment that responds to changing risk factors in real-time.
While Zero Trust provides the security philosophy, SASE (pronounced "sassy") delivers the comprehensive framework and infrastructure to implement these principles effectively across distributed healthcare environments.
SASE combines network security functions with WAN capabilities to support the dynamic secure access needs of organizations. As Yiyi Miao defines it, "SASE is a transformative architecture that combines network and security functions into a unified, cloud-based platform. For remote healthcare delivery, SASE offers several advantages: Scalability and Flexibility: SASE's cloud-native design allows healthcare organizations to scale their security infrastructure as needed, accommodating the dynamic nature of remote healthcare services. Enhanced Security: By integrating continuous trust assessment, identity verification, and device posture checks, SASE ensures that only authenticated users and compliant devices can access sensitive healthcare data. Simplified Management: SASE consolidates multiple security functions, such as SD-WAN, CASB, and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), into a single platform, simplifying policy enforcement and reducing administrative overhead."
According to research published in the Journal of Digital Innovations & Contemporary Research, SASE represents a framework that converges previously separate security tools into a unified cloud-delivered service, originally coined by Gartner in 2019. Rather than purchasing individual security products, healthcare organizations can implement a comprehensive bundle that includes SD-WAN (Software Defined Wide Area Network), FWaaS (Firewall as a Service), CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker), ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access), and SWG (Secure Web Gateway). This convergence helps healthcare organizations provide accessible, cost-effective, and latency-free services while maintaining security for their increasingly distributed networks, devices, and workforce.
SASE integrates essential network security services to create a comprehensive protection framework. Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS) provides cloud-delivered firewall protection that moves with users, ensuring consistent security regardless of location. Secure Web Gateway (SWG) protects clinicians from web-based threats while enforcing acceptable use policies, particularly important when accessing clinical resources from home networks. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) serves as the engine for implementing granular, identity-based access controls that limit exposure of sensitive systems. Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) secures access to cloud-based EHR systems and clinical applications, enforcing security policies across increasingly complex cloud environments. These services work together to protect healthcare data and applications while ensuring compliance with HIPAA requirements.
SASE uses identity and context to determine access rights, enabling a clinician's access to patient records to remain secure whether they're working from the hospital, home, or a remote clinic. This identity-based approach ensures that security policies follow the user rather than being tied to specific network locations or devices.
By bringing security services closer to end users through cloud points of presence, SASE reduces latency, necessary for real-time healthcare applications like telehealth and remote patient monitoring. This performance optimization is required for healthcare, where delayed access to information can impact clinical decision-making and patient outcomes.
SASE offers several specific advantages for healthcare organizations. Its scalability and flexibility allow it to easily adapt to changing remote work needs as clinical teams expand or contract. Many healthcare organizations experience seasonal fluctuations or need to rapidly scale during public health emergencies, and SASE architecture can accommodate these dynamic requirements.
The enhanced security provided by SASE creates unified protection, integrating Zero Trust principles with other essential security services. Rather than managing multiple disparate security tools, healthcare organizations can implement a cohesive security strategy that applies consistently across all access scenarios.
Administrative overhead is reduced through simplified management that consolidates tools and policies into a single platform. This reduction is valuable for healthcare IT teams that are often understaffed and managing numerous clinical and administrative systems simultaneously.
SASE improves performance by optimizing connections for clinicians, often providing faster access than traditional VPN solutions. When a radiologist needs to review large imaging files remotely, SASE can route traffic through the most efficient paths, reducing waiting time and improving clinical workflow.
Cost optimization is achieved by reducing hardware investment and maintenance requirements. As healthcare organizations face continuing financial pressure, the shift from capital-intensive on-premises security infrastructure to cloud-delivered services can provide significant financial benefits.
Go deeper: The role of cloud technology in HIPAA compliance
Unlike VPNs, SASE provides a comprehensive security framework that combines networking and security services in the cloud. It offers better performance, more granular access control, and consistent security regardless of location.
SASE helps meet HIPAA requirements through encrypted connections, detailed access logging, identity-based controls, and continuous monitoring of data access. It provides comprehensive audit trails and helps enforce security policies consistently.
Yes, SASE includes multiple security features that help prevent ransomware, including web filtering, malware detection, and zero-trust access controls. It can quickly isolate compromised devices to prevent spread.