Asimily raises funding to provide cybersecurity for healthcare devices

Nearly 50 million Americans had their protected health information breached in 2021

While the rise of digital health and telemedicine have certainly been beneficial to many patients, and were a lifeline during the pandemic, they also have a downside: an increase risk of cyber attacks. To wit: nearly 50 million Americans had their protected health information breached in 2021, a threefold increase in three years, while the number of reported healthcare breaches increased by 19 percent from 2020, growing from 758 to 905. And this is costly, as midsize hospitals lose more than $45,000 an hour in cyberattacks.

"Healthcare organizations have a number of devices, such as ultrasounds, lab equipment, and IoT devices, that they need to identify, secure, manage, and get better operational ROI from. Generic IT solutions do not cater to such devices," said Shankar Somasundaram founder and CEO of Asimily, a risk management platform for IoT devices and web-connected equipment in the healthcare space.

Luckily, it has become an increasing priority for those companies, he said; unlike four years ago, when there was still a question over it, it's now a board-level discussion about how to keep devices safe.

"The rising threat of ransomware attacks, increased guidelines from regulators, and greater awareness about the differences between medical and IoT devices all have led to the increase in prioritization."

Now the company will accelerate its expansion within the healthcare industry thanks to a new round of funding from MemorialCare Innovation Fund, along with Ridge Ventures, which led the company's most recent funding, a $10 million round in November 2021. While the exact amount of the new round wasn't disclosed, Somasundaram did say it puts the company's total funding at over $20 million.

Founded in 2017, Asimily inventories and classifies every device across a healthcare organization, including both connected and standalone. It then monitors them, and alerts operators if it detects any suspicious behavior.

Right now, the company's focus is on health systems who want to identify devices, do vulnerability management, monitor for threats and anomalies, are looking for forensic data, and need help with utilization, Somasundaram explained.

"We discover devices passively on the network. For vulnerability management, we not only discover devices but also use our proprietary IP to be able to prioritize device management particularly deeply and well. We also monitor for threats, have forensic analysis capabilities, and track utilization, amongst others," he said. 

Asimily is currently used at over 1,800 healthcare sites, and it has been able to demonstrate an ROI of more than $3 million a year for a small to midsize heath system, meaning those with around 1,000 beds.

Now that it has this new funding, the company plans to build and release new capabilities.

"Our ultimate goal is to grow the company so that we are securing healthcare devices globally. Success is when we have traction in every market globally," said Somasundaram.

"We have a strong partner ecosystem across Healthcare and IT. We are backed by CISOs, CEOs of cyber-security companies, and have a particularly experienced team with experience across healthcare, networking, cybersecurity, and analytics."

(Image source: asimily.com)