Why DSPM Is Becoming Essential for Healthcare Data Security

Healthcare breaches keep climbing. DSPM is quickly becoming the go-to way to protect patient data and stay ahead of compliance.

The healthcare industry has always been at the center of data security discussions. From the earliest days of HIPAA to the explosion of electronic health records, healthcare organizations have been tasked with balancing innovation and care delivery against an ever-growing burden of regulatory compliance and risk.

Now, a new discipline is emerging to meet those challenges head-on: Data Security Posture Management (DSPM). While still a relatively new concept, DSPM is rapidly gaining momentum. According to research, 75% of organizations are expected to adopt DSPM by mid-2025. That pace of adoption signals something bigger than a passing trend. It represents a shift in how organizations think about protecting sensitive information.

But what exactly is DSPM, why is it so critical for healthcare, and how can providers put it into practice?

Why Traditional Security Isn’t Enough

Most healthcare security teams already run a crowded toolbox: firewalls, endpoint detection, security information and event management (SIEM) platforms, and data loss prevention (DLP) systems. These tools are all important, but they tend to focus on where data lives or how it moves rather than the data itself.

That gap matters because:

• Cloud reliance is high. Over 81% of healthcare organizations now use cloud services, spreading sensitive data across multiple vendors and environments.
• Regulations are strict. HIPPA, HITECH, GDPR, and state-specific privacy laws impose complex and evolving requirements.
• The stakes are higher. Healthcare data breaches cost nearly twice the global average and carry devastating impact on patient trust.
• Patient data is uniquely sensitive. Unlike a credit card number that can be replaced, patient health records are permanent. Once exposed, they can never be fully secured again.

The result is a perfect storm: large volumes of highly sensitive data, distributed across systems, regulated by stringent laws, and targeted by attackers who know its value. Traditional frameworks weren’t designed to manage this complexity. They can alert you when a firewall is breached or when an endpoint is compromised, but they don’t give you a unified, real-time understanding of the data itself: what’s sensitive, where it resides, who can access it, and how it’s being used.

What is DSPM and Why Does It Matter?

DSPPM is designed to shift the focus of security directly onto the data. Instead of treating information as something secondary—protected only by the systems around it—DSPM makes the data itself the first-class citizen of security strategy.

Key capabilities include:

• Automated discovery: DSPM uses automation and AI-driven analytics to find and classify sensitive data across both cloud and on-premises environments.
• United visibility: It provides a single pane of glass showing where the data lives, how it flows between systems, and which users and applications access it.
• Risk-based prioritization: Rather than overwhelming teams with alerts, DSPM highlights which risks matter most based on sensitivity of the data involved.
• Continuous compliance: By mapping data policies to regulatory requirements, DSPM ensures HIPAA, GDPR, and other frameworks are consistently applied and audited.
• Real-time monitoring: DSPM tools continuously track how sensitive data is accessed and used, surfacing anomalies before they escalate into breaches.

For healthcare, this approach offers exactly what’s missing form traditional models. It’s direct, proactive, and continuous protection for patient information itself.

DSPM vs DLP and SIEM: What’s Different?

Healthcare IT leaders often ask: How is this different from what we already have?

It’s a fair question. After all, DLP and SIEM tools already provide visibility and monitoring. But the distinction lies in scope and focus.

• DLP aims to prevent sensitive data from leaving the organization’s perimeter. While useful, it often misses nuanced use cases—like internal misconfigurations or third-party access—that put data at risk.
• SIEM aggregates and analyzes logs to detect suspicious behavior across IT systems. Again, valuable, but it’s indirect. It’s focused on infrastructure, not the data itself.

DSPM builds on these tools by going straight to the source: the data. Some of the differentiators include:

• Holistic view: DSPM gives organizations visibility into both structured and unstructured data, across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
• Automated discovery: Unlike manual data mapping exercises, DSPM continuously discovers new and sensitive data as it’s created.
• Risk prioritization: Instead of creating noise, DSPM highlights the vulnerabilities that matter most –such as exposed patient health records or misconfigured cloud storage buckets.
• Compliance-first approach: DSPM aligns policies directly to HIPAA, HITECH, GDPR, and more, generating real-time compliance reports and automating enforcement.

In short: DLP and SIEM tell you something might be wrong. DSPM tells you what data is at risk now and how to fix it.

Why Healthcare Can’t Wait

The urgency is clear:

• Healthcare breaches are the most expensive in the world. IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach report showed healthcare at an average of $10.93 million per incident–nearly double the global average.
• Patient trust is fragile. Every breach erodes confidence in providers, leading to patient attrition and reputational damage.
• Regulatory penalties are real. HIPAA violates can cost millions per incident, and GDPR fines can reach 4% of annual revenue.
• The attack surface is growing. From telehealth platforms to connected medical devices, every new technology adds more data points to protect.

DSPM directly addresses these risks by giving leaders the ability to see and control sensitive data in real time.

How to Evaluate DSPM Readiness

If you’re considering DSPM, here are a few practical questions to ask:

1. What types of sensitive data do we manage today? (EHRs, insurance data, imaging files, etc.)
2. Do we know where all that data lives? (Cloud vendors, local servers, backups, third-party apps.)
3. Can we classify data by sensitivity and risk? (Not all information requires the same level of protection)
4. Are we monitoring how data flows in real-time? (Who accessed what, when, and why?)
5. Can we prove compliance on demand? (HIPAA auditors rarely give much notice.)

If you struggle to answer these questions, you’re exactly the type of organization DSPM was designed to help.

How Concord Helps Healthcare Providers with DSPM

At Concord, we’ve built our DSPM practice specifically for healthcare organizations facing these challenges. Our approach begins with understanding your world, not just your technology stack but also your compliance requirements, patient experience goals, and organizational culture.

Here’s how we help:

Comprehensive Data Landscape Assessment

We start by evaluating your entire environment:

• Business operations and workflows
• Data storage (cloud, on-premises, hybrid)
• Data flows between systems
• Critical applications processing PHI

This review ensures we know where your data lives and how it moves, so no blind spots remain.

Compliance-First Posture Review

Next, we map your current state against HIPAA, HITECH, and GDPR, uncovering gaps and vulnerabilities. We also work with your team to define what your sensitive data is, since every organization has unique profile risks.

Policy and Control Design

Once we know the landscape, we help define:

• Data discovery and classification standards
• Risk assessment priorities based on sensitivity and impact
• Data-handling policies aligned with compliance frameworks
• Automated controls for consistent enforcement

Implementation and Ongoing Monitoring

After policies are set, we:

• Deploy DSPM tools and configure them to your environmentEnable continuous monitoring and real-time alerts
• Provide regular audits and compliance reporting
• Train your staff on best practices and responsibilities

Continuous Improvement

Healthcare data security isn’t static. Threats evolve, and so do regulations. Concord provides ongoing managed services to:

• Monitor and remediate risks in real time
• Keep pace with new compliance requirements
• Adapt policies and tools to new technologies
• Ensure your DSPM framework stays resilient and effective

Protecting Patients by Protecting Their Data

At the end of the day, this isn’t just about compliance or avoiding fines. In healthcare, protecting data is protecting patients. Every record represents a real person whose privacy and trust are in your hands.

DSPM gives healthcare providers the visibility and control needed to safeguard that trust in a world where threats and regulations are only getting more complex. Concord’s DSPM team is here to help you build a resilient, compliant, and patient-centered approach to data security so you can focus on what matters most: delivering exceptional care.