Propelex: Protecting Healthcare Data and Assets with Comprehensive Cybersecurity

Ali Darugar, Co-Founder and Partner, Propelex

Digital technologies make it easier and more efficient for caregivers and physicians to deliver patient care and provide better outcomes. However, the rise of digital tools and the growing interconnectivity between different healthcare systems is driving the risk of cyber threats. These issues range from malware that compromises the privacy of patients and the integrity of overall systems to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that disrupt a healthcare facility's ability to provide care. Furthermore, cyberattacks can have ramifications beyond financial loss and breach of privacy in healthcare, as the loss of patient data can put lives at risk. Fortunately, addressing these security concerns with its comprehensive portfolio of intuitive cybersecurity solutions is Propelex.

"We have combined our cybersecurity expertise with most modern technologies to deliver security outcomes that are important to a healthcare organization, their patients, and medical regulators," states Ali Darugar, co-founder and partner of Propelex. The company's cybersecurity services include White glove Managed Detection and Response (MDR), Penetration Testing, Cloud Security, and Privacy and Compliance services to provide 24/7 protection across varied on-premise, hybrid, or public cloud environments.

In terms of MDR, Propelex offers three options to healthcare businesses—essential, professional, and enterprise. The MDR service includes 24/7 threat detection and incident management with a 15-minute triage SLA and MDR Concierge support. This includes cost-effective asset discovery, vulnerability, configuration scanning, and endpoint detection and response. As part of the enterprise package, Propelex acts as an extension of clients' staff, providing in-depth, individualized evaluation, protection, and customized response services.

Propelex also provides Red Team Penetration Testing services that combine manual, security expert-led operations with automated tools and technologies. The company's best of both worlds methodology generates unparalleled insights and supports the delivery of required security outcomes.

Concurrently, Propelex's cloud security experts help healthcare institutions safeguard their cloud architecture. The company's seasoned team identifies, manages, and controls overall security architecture, including data breach control, equipment misconfiguration, change control, identity and access management, API management, insider threat detection, and cloud usage visibility.

In addition to defensive cybersecurity measures, Propelex has worked with different healthcare institutions performing end-to-end Risk Assessments and providing Virtual CISO services that help its clients meet the Privacy and Compliance requirements and complement the overall Cybersecurity program for the healthcare sector.

From Strategic Planning, identifying and mitigating Compliance and Privacy risks, preparing a Security Roadmap, and developing of Incident Response plan to a Gaps Remediation strategy and security awareness, Propelex has the proven capabilities to help healthcare organizations keep up with the complex and ever-evolving Cybersecurity, Privacy and Compliance landscape.

What differentiates Propelex from its contemporaries and positions the company as one of the leading healthcare cybersecurity service providers is its healthcare sector roots. "Many of our top-level executives have been in the healthcare ecosystem for years, and it gives us an unprecedented understanding of the typical operational workflow and the prominent technologies used in this sector," says Ammar Fakhruddin, co-founder and partner of Propelex.

A recent partner engagement can best explain how Propelex's comprehensive know-how and powerful security services help its clients. In this instance, a U.S. healthcare insurance company was responsible for the data and resources management of a diverse population of patients, doctors, specialists, hospitals, care centers, health organizations, and insurance providers.

Moreover, as an organization that handles sensitive information, the client is subject to strict risk management, privacy, and data security regulations, including HIPAA and CCPA. In light of their healthcare information-driven operations, the client needed a trusted security partner to validate the security of their IT infrastructures (fragmented across multiple data centers).

We have combined our cybersecurity expertise with most modern technologies to deliver security outcomes that are important to a healthcare organization, their patients, and medical regulators

For this client, Propelex performed an end-to-end Risk Assessment and Penetration Testing service that provided a complete assessment of and insights into defining the Capability Maturity Model and Security Roadmap, strengthening security posture, policies and procedure, threat agents, vulnerabilities, and impact factors, secure business and technology processes and PHI footprints, as well as opportunities for improvement.

As part of the Penetration Testing, Propelex identified, documented, and explained the collected evidence with step by-step walkthroughs of the vulnerabilities and accomplished holistic safeguards for their information. The Propelex team developed remediation recommendations and compiled the results into a formal penetration test report, which was subjected to a quality assurance procedure before being securely issued to the customer for advance review. The company also coordinated a follow-up review meeting with stakeholders involved in the remediation and leveraged the technical recommendations and insights from the testing to make necessary operational and procedural adjustments.

Propelex's penetration testing helped the client substantially reduce operational risk while demonstrating a commitment to ongoing security compliance and risk management. At the same time, the company implemented a regular penetration testing schedule for the customer, enabling them to continually improve their information security. Above all, Propelex's insights aided the healthcare insurance firm in transforming their security and compliance from a cost center into an engine generating higher efficiencies and growing value.

Driven by many similar success stories, Propelex is determined to work with more healthcare organizations in the coming months. As the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for digitalization and the subsequent implementation challenges, Propelex is here to propel the healthcare sector toward a more secure and safer future.

Share this Article:

Company
Propelex

Headquarters
Encinitas, CA

Management
Ali Darugar, Co-Founder and Partner and AmmarFakhruddin, Co-Founder and Partner, Propelex

Description
Propelex protects the most valuable healthcareIT assets on-premise and hybrid/public cloud environments using its managed security services.