Investing in cybersecurity is often overlooked in favor of projects that directly affect patient care, such as building a new hospital wing or adding more beds. However, as cybercriminals continue to target and hold data ransom, patient care is now being impacted by lack of security.
A large number of hospital staff, including doctors, nurses, and technicians, use a wide variety of devices from desktops to mobile devices, MRI machines and other medical equipment. Often these systems are running old operating systems and legacy software.
IT staff must demonstrate compliance with regulatory bodies such as HIPAA, HITECH, and HITRUST. If not compliant, healthcare companies face not only damages inflicted by potential breaches but also investigative costs, fees, and other penalties.
KPMG reports that the top concern of hospital security staff is malware infection systems.
Healthcare is one of the most targeted industries for ransomware, which is shutting down networks and affecting patient care.
Employees fall victim to social engineering, including phishing, social media attacks, and tech support scams.
Increases in attacks on computer-controlled medical devices as well as mobile devices leave healthcare providers vulnerable.
Computers and medical machinery often operate on antiquated systems no longer supported with security updates, which leaves them vulnerable to infiltration via exploit.
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