Topology to Action: Rapid Cyber Insights for a Resource-Constrained Rural Hospital

A small rural hospital in the Midwest United States faced escalating cyber risk, limited IT staffing, and little visibility into how sensitive data moved across clinical and operational systems. Adding traditional security tools requiring agents, hardware, or additional personnel were not viable. With a lean team already stretched thin, the hospital needed immediate visibility without increasing workload or infrastructure, making an agentless approach the fastest and most operationally realistic option.

The hospital deployed Celerium Data Breach Defender®, a cloud-based, agentless cybersecurity visibility solution using existing network telemetry. The platform was connected in under 30 minutes, required no hardware or software installation, and caused no disruption to patient care.

On the same day, the IT team gained clear visibility into outbound data flows from critical systems, including clinical, imaging, and administrative environments. Anomaly-based detection quickly established normal data flows and volumes and flagged unusual external transfers, enabling the team to identify ‘shadow IT’ testing tool that was potentially exposing sensitive data.

This deployment demonstrated that even resource-constrained hospitals can achieve rapid, meaningful cybersecurity outcomes — including early breach detection and actionable visibility — without adding staff, deploying agents, or impacting operations.

Customer profile

A 45+ bed rural community hospital in the Midwestern United States provides essential acute, emergency, imaging, and outpatient services to a geographically dispersed population.

Its IT environment is typical of small and rural hospitals:

• A small IT team supporting both infrastructure and applications
• Core clinical systems including EHR, PACS/imaging, lab, and pharmacy
• Business systems for billing, HR, and supply chain
• Numerous third-party vendors requiring remote access or data exchange

Like many hospitals in the 10–200-bed range, the organization faced increasing cyber risk alongside:

• Limited cybersecurity staffing and specialized expertise
• Constrained budgets for new hardware or complex deployments
• Growing concern about ransomware and silent data exfiltration
• Minimal visibility into which systems were sending sensitive data externally

Leadership needed rapid, practical cybersecurity visibility that could be deployed immediately and managed by existing staff.

Challenge

• The hospital could not easily answer fundamental security questions:
  • Which clinical or operational systems are transmitting data outside the network?
  • Are vendors accessing or exporting more data than expected?
  • Could suspicious outbound activity be detected before it becomes a breach?

  Traditional security tools required:

  • Installing endpoint agents across clinical devices
  • Purchasing and deploying network appliances
  • Lengthy configuration cycles and tuning
  • Dedicated staff to monitor and interpret alerts

These approaches were not feasible without risking operational disruption or overloading the IT team.

Solution

The hospital implemented Celerium Data Breach Defender, cloud-delivered, agentless cybersecurity visibility platform that leverages existing network telemetry from the Firewall Syslog.

Deployment Experience:

• First 30 Minutes
  • Connected existing network log sources securely to the platform
  • No hardware installed and no agents deployed on clinical systems
• Within 3 hours
  • Automated discovery identified clinical, operational, and vendor-connected assets including cloud based systems
  • Initial dashboard displayed internal source and external destinations
• Within 30 days
  • The platform established a behavioral baseline and provided:
    • Hourly visibility into outbound data flows
    • Identification of critical systems communicating externally via a system registration process
    • Detection of unusual or previously unseen destinations
    • Alerts for anomalous data transfer patterns

All of this occurred without downtime, workflow interruption, or patient-care impact.

Results

• Immediate visibility
  • The IT team gained its first comprehensive, consolidated view of outbound data movement from EHR, imaging, and administrative systems
  • Vendor connections and data exchange patterns became transparent
• 30 Days - actionable insight
  • The system detected an unusually large outbound transfer from a workstation to an unrecognized third-party vendor hosted in Europe.
  • Investigation showed a tester was using an unauthorized load-testing tool that routed data to European cloud services.
  • The team required use of approved testing tools, stopping the transfer the same day and reducing potential exposure of sensitive data.

Operational benefits

• Alerts prioritized for a small IT team, minimizing noise
• No additional staffing required
• No endpoint agents or new infrastructure to maintain
• Improved confidence in vendor oversight and data handling

Business value for small and rural hospitals

This case demonstrates that a small or rural hospital can deploy meaningful cybersecurity controls in under 30 minutes and achieve same-day visibility into outbound data flows, even with limited resources.

• Key outcomes:
  • Rapid, agentless deployment using existing telemetry
  • Immediate insight across clinical and operational environments
  • Anomaly-based detection of potential data exfiltration
  • No disruption to patient care or clinical systems
  • Sustainable for small IT teams and constrained budgets

By aligning cybersecurity with the operational realities of rural healthcare, hospitals can move from limited visibility to clear, actionable breach detection — without adding staff or infrastructure.