To the people who keep hospitals running.
Eleven minutes.
That's how long someone spent trying to break into a hospital's network through a security camera, during one of our pilots, while doctors and nurses worked just a few feet away. This was a real attempt, not a drill and not a test.
Our system was only watching at the time. It saw every move. When the team switched our agents on, the attempt stopped cold at the camera. Doctors kept seeing patients. Nurses kept doing their rounds. Outside the security team, nobody ever knew it happened.
I think about that camera a lot. It wasn't on anyone's list of risks. Facilities had installed it years ago. The software inside it had never been updated. And it sat on a part of the network that everyone assumed was walled off from the clinical side. It wasn't.
That camera is what I call a blind spot. And here's the hard truth I've learned talking with hospital security leaders: most hospitals have far more of them than anyone realizes.
I started NetOps IQ because the security tools most hospitals own were built for laptops, servers, and the cloud. They do that job well. But the devices that actually run the building were left out. I mean the cameras, door readers, heating and cooling systems, nurse call, and asset trackers. They can't run security software. They rarely get updates. And very few people are watching them.
This book is for the person who has to answer for all of that. Maybe you're a CISO, a CIO, or the person in clinical engineering or facilities who keeps getting pulled into security meetings. You don't need another brochure. You need a clear way to think about the problem and a practical plan you can start on Monday.
That's what I've tried to write. I'll be straight with you throughout. When something has been measured, I'll say so. When something is an estimate, I'll show you how we got there.
How to read the evidence
Every story and number here is one of three kinds, and I'll always tell you which. Observed means we saw it ourselves in a NetOps IQ pilot or assessment, with the customer's details removed. A small number after a sentence means independent evidence , and you'll find the source in the source notes, listed by chapter. Illustrative means an example scenario that shows how something works, not a report of a specific event.
Let's start by looking at the parts of your hospital that nobody is looking at.
Eldad Matityahu Founder and CEO, NetOps IQ