When Leon Lerman and Daniel Brodie set about founding Cynerio, a healthcare cybersecurity platform, they did so because innovation in the “Internet of Things” medical space was happening at breakneck speed without accounting for the possibility of a crash. For Lerman, who had worked in cybersecurity in the Israeli army, he knew from experience the pitfalls of that approach.
In 2017, Lerman and Brodie unveiled Cynerio with the goal of helping hospitals secure every connected asset on their networks. The sheer size of hospital networks makes them especially vulnerable to cyberattacks, usually in the form of ransomware, making it nearly impossible for medical facilities to manage these threats alone.
That’s where Cynerio steps in. The timing of the launch ended up being prescient, said Lerman in a recent interview. The CEO, who has served on the boards of Fast Company and the Forbes Executive Council since 2021, noted that the onset of COVID-19 wreaked havoc on medical organizations in ways he had foreseen—just a lot faster than expected. “This increased attack landscape wasn’t the result of errors per se,” Lerman said, “rather, it was the outcome of so many companies not being prepared to go fully remote on a moment’s notice.”
In the intervening years, Cynerio’s work has become more advanced as attacks have become more sophisticated. They’ve also received help. Last September, Cynerio joined the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association, a network of independent software vendors and managed security service providers that have integrated their solutions with Microsoft’s security technology.
One month later, the partnership helped net a deal with the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System in response to continued cyberattacks on the United Kingdom’s health system. The announcement followed on the heels of a similar deal in April with Relyens, a European insurance and risk management company.
But all of this is still just the beginning, Lerman said. “As the number of connected medical devices is expected to reach 50 billion in the next 10 years,” he noted, “hospitals and healthcare systems need to invest in a strong cybersecurity system that can protect both the network and patients’ confidential and valuable information.”
