Clearwater Publishes First-of-its-Kind Report Examining Cybersecurity Performance of Private Equity-Backed Portfolio Companies in Healthcare

New Benchmark Trend Data Identifies Potential Areas of Risk and Provides Recommended Actions to Protect and Create Portfolio Value

NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Clearwater, the largest pure-play provider of cybersecurity and compliance solutions for the healthcare industry, today published a first-of-its-kind report examining the cybersecurity performance of healthcare private equity (PE) firm portfolio companies relative to industry benchmarks. With insights drawn from Clearwater's extensive experience assessing the cybersecurity maturity of PE-backed portfolio companies spanning across all corners of the healthcare ecosystem, the 2025 Cyber Risk Benchmark Trend Report for Healthcare Private Equity highlights potential areas of risk and provides recommended actions to protect and create portfolio value.

"While every organization's cybersecurity risks are unique, these insights offer strong indicators of where vulnerabilities may exist and what steps PE firms should take to mitigate risk before it impacts portfolio value," says Clearwater CEO Steve Cagle. "Firms that proactively address cybersecurity can reduce liability, strengthen resilience, and not only protect but also accelerate revenue growth and create long-term value. Cybersecurity and resilience capabilities are creating winners and losers. Firms who are make cybersecurity a standard part of due diligence, perform ongoing risk analysis, and align cybersecurity goals to their investment strategy are winning, as they are more competitive in the market while also avoiding costly breaches, regulatory penalties, and post-acquisition surprises.  We see winning private equity firms taking a proactive approach to ensuring their portcos have effective cyber risk management programs in place."

Using HHS 405(d) Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP) as an assessment framework, Clearwater's healthcare cybersecurity experts have conducted hundreds of assessments over the past three years across a range of company types that are commonly found in private equity portfolios, including pharmaceutical companies, dental service organizations, medtech manufacturers, physician and specialty practice clinics, and healthcare software and analytics companies.

"While the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) is a widely recognized risk management tool, it is often complex and resource-intensive to implement across organizations of different sizes," says John Santana, a Clearwater Principal Consultant who has performed many of the assessments that were referenced in compiling the report. "For healthcare investors, the 405(d) HICP framework provides a structured, scalable, and federally recognized alternative, offering clear, actionable security measures that align with regulatory expectations and drive consistency across like organizations."

The newly published report presents detailed findings covering the performance of different company types in 405(d) HICP practice areas such as Incident Response & Resilience, Data Protection & Loss Prevention, and Security Policies & Governance.

Visit www.clearwatersecurity.com/Healthcare-PE-Cyber-Risk-Report/ to request a copy of the report and discover how, on a category basis, companies are performing against industry benchmarks and standards.

About Clearwater
Clearwater helps organizations across the healthcare ecosystem move to a more secure, compliant, and resilient state so they can achieve their mission. The company provides a deep pool of experts across a broad range of cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance domains, purpose-built software that enables efficient identification and management of cybersecurity and compliance risks, and a tech-enabled, 24x7x365 Security Operations Center with managed threat detection and response capabilities. To learn more, please visit www.clearwatersecurity.com.

SOURCE Clearwater