EVALUATING AND ENHANCING CYBERSECURITY AND RESILIENCE IN HEALTHCARE: A UNIFIED RISK AND COMPLIANCE FRAMEWORK

The growing digitization of healthcare has introduced complex cybersecurity challenges, making the protection of sensitive patient data and critical infrastructure a top priority. This paper presents a unified risk and compliance framework designed to evaluate and enhance cybersecurity resilience in healthcare systems. By integrating risk assessment methodologies with regulatory compliance standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, and NIST, the framework provides a comprehensive approach to identifying vulnerabilities, managing threats, and ensuring continuous protection. The study analyzes key cybersecurity incidents in the healthcare sector to highlight common weaknesses and evaluates the effectiveness of current security protocols. Recommendations are offered to strengthen resilience through proactive risk management, real-time monitoring, and cross-organizational collaboration. The proposed framework aims to guide healthcare institutions in building robust, compliant, and adaptive cybersecurity infrastructures.