Cybersecurity in Healthcare: FBI Security Secrets Revealed

Healthcare takes cybersecurity very seriously, but healthcare is still behind the curve and has a lot of work to do to become better.

In this first of three articles, Healthcare Transformers sits with former FBI undercover operative and author of Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy, Eric O’Neill to discuss cybersecurity and data privacy in healthcare. 

Top of mind for all healthcare executives is data privacy and security, particularly since COVID-19. The thought that the most intimate details of our health and personal lives could be stolen and sold to the highest bidder is terrifying. 

We all need to be talking about cybersecurity because it impacts all of us. Eric shares his fascinating story of how he became a thought leader in cybersecurity and his unique insights as he talks to us about his experience in the data privacy and security space within the FBI and beyond. 

Click here to watch Eric O’Neill’s full interview on FBI data privacy and security secrets revealed and what healthcare leaders can learn.

The origins of data privacy and cybersecurity

HT: You recently published your book entitled Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy. How would you describe your experiences working with the FBI and how has it helped you to develop your career into what it is today, being an expert on data privacy and cybersecurity?

Eric O’Neill: I worked undercover for the FBI for over five years as an undercover counterterrorism and counterintelligence operative mostly around the Washington, D.C. area. My squad protected everything from Baltimore, Maryland to Richmond, Virginia. We were tasked to follow and investigate foreign nationals or American citizens who were suspected of terrorism or espionage against the United States. The fundamental idea behind counterintelligence is “how do we catch spies?” More specifically, “how do we counter the intelligence goals of foreign intelligence units that are trying to steal information from the United States?”