Security

Eaton Bolsters Hospital Defenses as Healthcare Cybersecurity Act Arrives

From UPSs to zero-trust device controls, Eaton positions infrastructure as a frontline defense for hospital cybersecurity.

Nathan Eddy

Nathan Eddy works as an independent filmmaker and journalist based in Berlin, specializing in architecture, business technology and healthcare IT. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

The future of hospital security will be defined by how well healthcare organizations can harden and monitor the physical and operational infrastructure that keeps clinical systems running — especially at the edge, in network closets and across distributed care environments.

The Healthcare Cybersecurity Act of 2025, which directs CISA and HHS to work together to improve cyber defenses, is pushing healthcare providers to strengthen secure infrastructures and establish formal risk management programs for high-risk digital assets.

A key element of the act is assisting healthcare entities to adopt stronger cybersecurity practices without imposing new regulatory burdens, and ensuring readiness against attacks that can disrupt clinical operations or compromise sensitive data.

DISCOVER: Healthcare organizations and their patients can benefit from Eaton's power management.

In response, Eaton is aligning its power and distributed-infrastructure portfolio to directly support those requirements by protecting clinical systems from unsafe shutdowns, hardening infrastructure devices with zero-trust capabilities and built-in firewall controls, and providing continuous infrastructure visibility through remote monitoring and reporting.

The company’s network-managed uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, gigabit Network M3 Card with secure boot and traffic filtering, and Brightlayer digital power management platform can reduce downtime, support segmentation and access control, surface device health and alerts, and enable faster incident response across server rooms, network closets and distributed endpoints.

Power Continuity as Security Enabler

Kinsley Winn, Eaton’s Segment Development Manager for Healthcare and Distributed Infrastructure, explains that UPS systems — battery-powered devices that instant backup power during outages — can reduce operational and cyber-risk because abrupt shutdowns can knock critical applications offline and complicate recovery.

“It immediately supplies energy if the power fails, allowing time to properly shut down equipment,” she says.

The company’s network-managed UPS deployments can be secured and controlled in sensitive locations.

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“Eaton’s gigabit Network M3 Card for UPS systems uses a zero-trust design that makes the device start up securely, and ensures that the software has not been altered,” Winn explains. “This helps support healthcare requirements for stronger segmentation and access control.”

Operationally, the card is designed to reduce deployment friction and provide oversight signals.

“Zero-touch provisioning makes the setup process much easier and speeds deployment,” Winn says. “The card also gives teams useful information about device health, activity logs, alerts and performance trends, which helps IT staff spot risks early and prevents downtime.”

Visibility for Faster Response

Winn says hospitals need better visibility into power and IT infrastructure so teams can detect issues early and coordinate responses across functions, pointing to Brightlayer, Eaton’s digital power management platform.

“It provides healthcare organizations real-time monitoring and visibility into their critical power and IT infrastructure,” she says.

For operations teams, the goal is to focus limited staff time on issues with the highest impact.

“A lot of healthcare facilities implement Brightlayer because it helps teams detect issues early, prioritize where their workflow needs to go, and then respond quickly when incidents occur,” Winn says.

Beyond reporting and collaboration, Brightlayer is designed to improve operational continuity during cyber events, reducing the need for onsite intervention.

“Brightlayer also enables 24/7 remote monitoring and provides proactive maintenance insights,” Winn says.

Reducing Risk at Physical and Operational Layers

Winn notes that cyber-risk is also shaped by physical instability and outages that can take systems offline. Power interruptions can compound with cyberattacks by taking devices offline and then disabling security features.

“Eaton has a healthcare portfolio of hospital-grade power and IT solutions that includes power strips, medical isolators and other solutions that protect clinical equipment from electrical anomalies,” she says.

A lot of healthcare facilities implement Brightlayer because it helps teams detect issues early, prioritize where their workflow needs to go, and then respond quickly when incidents occur.”

Kinsley Winn Segment Development Manager for Healthcare and Distributed Infrastructure, Eaton

She also points to products that support custody and tamper resistance for mobile endpoints; for example, Eaton’s secure charging cart.

“Healthcare facilities needed a physical locking mechanism to protect mobile devices because they wanted an extra layer of physical security to protect patient data in the hospital,” Winn explains.

Implementation Support for Healthcare Organizations

To help hospitals identify gaps and prioritize modernization, Winn highlights Eaton’s onsite advisory services.

The company offers complimentary onsite power assessments, which function as a comprehensive asset audit.

“We create a report that identifies the equipment, its age and any noncompliant components,” she adds.

For high-risk systems such as electronic health record environments, Winn says Eaton supports deployment planning by helping organizations scope the supporting hardware needed for compliant implementations.

“EHR deployments have very specific hardware accessory requirements that include cables, docks and mounts,” she says. “Eaton has an entire portfolio of components that can support these implementations.”

The security benefit comes from combining continuity, hardened device management, monitoring and modernization planning across the infrastructure that healthcare depends on, Winn says.

“This combination of securing the hardware, having monitoring tools and doing equipment planning helps healthcare organizations build resiliency and maintain operational continuity,” she says.

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