AI in healthcare data management is raising cyber risk, says David Finn of Cyberhealth Integrity. Here is what hospital leaders need to do.

Interview published November 12

AI in healthcare data management issues are not just technical issues, said cybersecurity expert David Finn in an interview with Health Data Management on November 12. If hospitals jump on the AI bandwagon without good data governance they will increase their risks.

Summary

Who

David Finn, Principal at Cyberhealth Integrity, Dallas.

What

AI has caused existing cyber threats to become faster. Poor data governance further increases the problem.

Why

Healthcare breaches have an average cost of $7.42 million, according to IBM.

Expert comments

Finn does not claim that AI has created new threats but has caused existing threats to become faster and more focused. An attack such as spearphishing would take around 2 weeks to research in the past. Now it takes around 45 seconds. This is an issue with leadership not technical, he said.

Why is this a problem in Healthcare data security?

Clinicians are using personal AI tools. Finn said there is no hospital who can honestly say they don’t use any within their organisation. Poor data governance is the issue. The sector has not performed well in this area for around 20 years.

According to IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report, healthcare breaches had an average cost of $7.42 million. These took an average of 279 days to detect and contain, according to HIPAA Journal. Thirteen percent of organisations had an incident involving an AI model or application and 97% of these did not have appropriate security measures in place in relation to AI, according to VentureBeat.

What can hospital leaders do?

Ensure you include vendors. AI means more training data, models, prompts and APIs. Continue to monitor after implementation as algorithms can drift. Ensure you are using AI to help with specific issues.

Further to know

  • Healthcare has been the most expensive industry to suffer a data breach over the last 14 years, according to IBM.
  • Sixteen percent of breaches had attackers use AI, according to IBM.

AI and Cybersecurity are now one topic, Finn wants this to be discussed at board level. To ensure good healthcare data management ensure you have processes in place before and after implementation. Business Fortune believes that hospital leaders who do this will best protect patient records.

FAQs

1. How does AI increase cybersecurity risk?

This causes existing threats to become faster, more focused and harder to detect.

2. What is shadow AI?

When clinicians use personal AI tools.

3. How much does a data breach cost in healthcare?

The average cost is $7.42 million according to IBM’s 2025 report.

4. Why is data governance important with AI?

This is a fundamental part and healthcare has not performed well in this area for around 20 years, according to Finn.

5. Who should be responsible for AI security within a hospital?

Leadership should be responsible. Clinical, finance and IT leaders should be included.

Sources

Health Data Management, HIPAA Journal, VentureBeat