Healthcare organizations operate under some of the most demanding security conditions of any industry—balancing patient safety, regulatory pressure, and increasingly complex threat activity.
Health-ISAC sits at the center of this community. As the Information Sharing and Analysis Center for the global health sector, Health-ISAC works closely with hospitals, health systems, insurers, medical device manufacturers, and public health organizations to share threat intelligence, coordinate response, and strengthen resilience with its members in more than 140 countries.
That role requires strong internal security operations of its own. Coordinating sensitive intelligence, supporting members during active incidents, and maintaining trust across the community all depend on reliable internal visibility and effective security workflows. When evaluating a SIEM platform to support its internal security operations, Health-ISAC selected Abstract Security.
A sector-informed view of security operations
Health-ISAC’s perspective on security is shaped by daily engagement with real incidents affecting health organizations worldwide. From ransomware campaigns to identity-based attacks and supply chain disruptions, the organization has broad visibility into how security teams are operating under pressure.
Across the sector, several consistent challenges emerge:
- Data volume overwhelms teams
- SIEM cost and complexity compound over time
- Noisy detections slow response
- Rigid architectures make change painful
These realities informed how Health-ISAC approached its own SIEM evaluation—not as a feature comparison, but as a decision about how security teams should work day to day.
“What stood out about Abstract wasn’t just the technology, but the philosophy: giving security teams more control over their data and detections without forcing a rip-and-replace of existing tools.”
How Health-ISAC evaluated SIEM options
Health-ISAC evaluated SIEM platforms using a practical set of criteria focused on operational effectiveness rather than theoretical capability. Key considerations included ease of use for analysts, architectural flexibility, the ability to integrate with existing tools and data sources, and long-term cost predictability.
The goal was to select a platform that could adapt as the environment and threat landscape change—without adding unnecessary operational overhead or forcing disruptive platform transitions.
Why Abstract Security
Abstract Security supports a streaming-first model for security operations, designed to help teams work with security data as it arrives rather than after it has already been centralized and indexed. Instead of sending all data downstream and hoping value appears later, Abstract allows teams to focus on meaningful signal earlier in the investigation lifecycle.
For Health-ISAC, this approach aligned with the need to maintain high confidence in detections while keeping workflows efficient and adaptable.
“As threats against the global health sector continue to evolve, we value partners that focus on practical, operational outcomes rather than theoretical architectures. Abstract has shown a clear understanding of that reality.”
Abstract’s architecture also allows organizations to evolve their security data strategy over time—onboarding new sources, adjusting detection logic, and integrating with existing platforms without repeated re-engineering.
What this means in practice
In practice, the partnership is focused on simplifying Health-ISAC’s internal security operations while creating opportunities to share high-value detection insights with the broader membership.
Health-ISAC uses Abstract Security to support:
- A single platform for security operations
Abstract serves as Health-ISAC’s internal SIEM, aggregating logs and telemetry to support threat hunting, querying, analysis, and detection in one place—reducing the need to switch between tools. - Earlier application of intelligence and detections
Threat intelligence feeds and detection rules can be applied directly to incoming data, supporting a “shift-left” approach, where threats can be identified earlier in the investigation process and with greater confidence. - Support for modern security data sources
Health-ISAC’s deployment spans common telemetry such as cloud services, identity systems, endpoint activity, email, and SaaS platforms, without requiring rigid or complex ingestion models. - Operational focus over infrastructure management
Together, Health-ISAC and Abstract designed a security data strategy that prioritizes ease of use, efficient workflows, and analyst confidence—helping the team stay focused on supporting members rather than managing infrastructure.
A decision shaped by community insight
Health-ISAC’s technology choices are informed by close collaboration with healthcare security teams and broad visibility into the challenges they face. While traditional SIEM platforms remain central to many environments, there is increasing scrutiny on how security data architectures scale, adapt, and support effective response over time.
By selecting Abstract Security to support its internal SIEM operations, Health-ISAC reflects a preference for flexibility, clarity of signal, and operational realism, principles shaped by deep engagement with the healthcare security community.
Looking ahead
Health-ISAC’s mission is to help the global health sector respond to threats faster and with greater confidence. Abstract Security is proud to partner with Health-ISAC in support of that mission, and to collaborate on approaches that improve security operations while respecting the real-world constraints healthcare teams face.