Baptist Memorial Health Care receives prestigious award for tech security and innovation

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 21, 2025- Foundry’s CSO, a leading source for breaking news, analysis and research on security and risk management, named Baptist Memorial Health Care a 2025 CSO Award winner. 

The award recognizes Baptist’s information technology and security team for significantly reducing the organization’s enterprise vulnerability risk score and effectively protecting critical patient information systems. The award-winning initiative turned passive security monitoring into active threat reduction.

“Baptist Technology Services is honored to be recognized by CSO for our work in protecting Baptist Memorial Health Care patients and families from security threats,” said Tom Barnett, chief information and digital officer for Baptist. “This award is an acknowledgement of the team’s commitment to ensuring safety for our entire network through data-driven security initiatives.”

This is the second time Baptist has received this award. In 2024, Baptist was recognized for developing a secondary disaster recovery system to protect the Baptist data center from environmental risks, such as floods, tornados and ransomware attacks.

“The scope and complexity of cybersecurity responsibilities are expanding rapidly —especially in the face of emerging AI-driven threats,” said Beth Kormanik, content director of the CSO Conference & Awards. “This year’s CSO Award winners exemplify how today’s security leaders are meeting these challenges head on.”

The CSO Awards recognize organizations for security projects and initiatives demonstrating outstanding business value and thought leadership. This year's awards will highlight those at the forefront of security innovation, such as new threat-detection methods, advanced cyber analytics and initiatives addressing artificial intelligence dangers, zero trust and data protection. Award winners will be honored at the CSO Conference & Awards in October.

CSO serves enterprise security decision-makers and users with the critical information they need to stay ahead of evolving threats and defend against criminal cyberattacks. With incisive content that addresses all security disciplines, from risk management to network defense to fraud and data loss prevention, CSO offers unparalleled depth and insight to support key decisions and investments for IT security professionals. Go to www.csoonline.com for more information. 

Baptist Memorial Health Care is one of the country’s largest not-for-profit health care systems and the largest provider of Medicaid in the region. Consistently ranking among the top integrated health care networks in the country, Baptist Memorial comprises 24 affiliate hospitals in West Tennessee, North and Central Mississippi and East Arkansas; a freestanding emergency department; more than 6,000 affiliated physicians; Baptist Medical Group, a multispecialty physician group with more than 1,100 providers; Baptist Cancer Center; home, hospice and psychiatric care; walk-in and urgent care clinics; a network of surgery, rehabilitation and other outpatient centers; and an education system that includes Baptist Health Sciences University and a college of osteopathic medicine. Baptist employs more than 22,000 people, and in fiscal year 2023 contributed more than $465 million in community benefit and uncompensated care to the communities it serves. For more information, please visit www.baptistonline.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.com.

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