Case Studies > Bromium Helps Protect Moffitt Cancer Center’s Computer Networks

Bromium Helps Protect Moffitt Cancer Center’s Computer Networks

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Bromium
GE-PACS

Tech Stack

Windows-based workstations
VPN

Implementation Scale

Departmental Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Customer Satisfaction
Digital Expertise

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Endpoint Security
Cybersecurity & Privacy - Malware Protection

Applicable Industries

Healthcare & Hospitals

Applicable Functions

Facility Management
Business Operation

Use Cases

Cybersecurity
Remote Asset Management
Remote Control

Services

System Integration
Cybersecurity Services

About The Customer

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute is a nonprofit cancer research and treatment facility located in Tampa, Florida. Moffitt is one of the only 49 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers, and is ranked No. 9 cancer hospital in the nation. Since 1999, Moffitt has been listed in the U.S. News & World Report as one of the best hospitals for cancer care. Research excellence and outstanding patient care are not the only things that Moffitt Cancer Center has been recognized for. In 2017, Moffitt’s Chief Information Security Officer Dave Summitt was awarded the Information Security Executive Southeast People’s Choice Award, and his department’s Security Operations Center (SOC) was nominated as a leading project. Summitt is an industry veteran, who spent 21 years with the Department of Defense before transitioning to the healthcare field. For the past 13 years, he has focused specifically on cybersecurity, working to safeguard hospitals’ computer systems against phishing attacks, ransomware, and other threats.

The Challenge

In healthcare, one of the most challenging areas to secure is the radiology department. The images need to be very detailed, doctors usually request to see multiple images at once, and they often need this information in real time. The machines that interpret radiology scans and other medical images are regular Windows-based workstations running GE-PACS. They are connected to the network and can be potentially exposed to web-borne malware or threats that hide inside malicious email attachments if or when employees use these machines to check their email or browse the Internet. Protecting radiology machines against cyber attacks is essential, but when Summitt’s team tried introducing antivirus software, they were notified that it caused substantial degradation in performance. The Moffitt security team needed to find a solution that would shield the machines from threats, known and unknown, while preserving usability and performance.

The Solution

Summitt recalls first learning about Bromium when he held a CISO position at the University of Alabama Birmingham Healthcare System. Upon moving to Moffitt, Summitt introduced Bromium to his new security organization as a tool to better understand what potential threats may be lurking in their environment. The team initially began using Bromium to intentionally infect a few select PCs and observe how the threat unfolds and behaves throughout its lifecycle. Bromium’s complete killchain analysis helps gather all available information about the threat, and learn from it to harden Moffitt’s cyber defenses. Summitt then decided to remove the anti-virus from the radiology machines and protect them with Bromium instead. The initial trial was successful, and today more than 30 of Moffitt’s critical radiology reading machines run Bromium. Even when people are using those machines for things not related to radiology, like downloading files from the Internet or checking email, Bromium provides protection.

Operational Impact

Since removing anti-virus from the radiology workstations and replacing it with Bromium, Moffitt has noticed a significant improvement in machine performance.
Removing the performance lag increases staff productivity, helps doctors make speedier decisions concerning patient care, and increases doctor satisfaction.
Summitt credits Bromium with streamlining Moffitt’s IT security and SOC operations. With Bromium, security operations teams can quickly and efficiently determine the impact of incoming malware and begin remediation efforts before it becomes a larger issue.

Quantitative Benefit