Avera Health

Avera Health operates a sprawling attack surface: 315 locations across a five-state Upper Midwest region, serving roughly 100 communities. The nonprofit health ministry runs integrated healthcare delivery at scale, which means electronic health records, connected medical devices, telehealth infrastructure, and the operational technology that keeps facilities running are all in scope. The threat model is healthcare's threat model - ransomware targeting clinical workflows, data exfiltration of protected health information, and supply-chain risk across a multidisciplinary network that has to stay online because downtime is not an inconvenience but a patient-safety event.

As a mission-driven organization rooted in Christian values, Avera emphasizes a culture of stewardship and compassion - which, translated to security operations, means the team's mandate extends beyond perimeter defense to supporting clinicians and staff where they are. Security here isn't a silo; it's embedded in an environment where multidisciplinary teams collaborate across a large geographic footprint, often in rural and underserved communities. That changes the calculus on endpoint management, identity governance, and incident response logistics.

The five-state footprint introduces real operational complexity: securing hundreds of facilities, many of them in small communities, against a healthcare threat landscape that has made regional hospital systems a preferred target for ransomware operators. Avera's security posture has to account for legacy clinical systems, vendor risk, and the reality that the organization's mission - making a measurable impact on community health - depends on keeping infrastructure resilient and patient data intact.