Developing a Cyber Security-minded Workforce to Protect the Supply Chain

Just how do you handle cybersecurity for the medtech industry?

The answer is simple said Ashley Mancuso, Vice President of MedTech BISO & Product Security at Johnson & Johnson, you have to develop advocates for cybersecurity.

Mancuso delivered a keynote last week during MEDevice Silicon Valley. The topic of her talk was titled Advancing Cyber Security in Supply Chain Operations.

She noted that it was crucial to understand the importance of fostering a culture where every employee is a cyber security advocate.

“The reality is, you can have the most competent cybersecurity team with as much business understanding but it doesn’t matter [because] if you don’t have the rest of the organization around you, it will be hard to be successful,” she said.

She noted the healthcare industry was particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks.

“If you think about why cybersecurity is such a challenge in healthcare is because it is a very attractive industry for adversaries,” Mancuso said. “The reason it’s so attractive is because – one it’s personal and two, hospitals have typically underinvested over time in correct protections for their environments so they’re very vulnerable. They also typically pay ransom.”