Healthcare, One of the Most Important Areas in which to Invest in Security
The pandemic has forcibly transformed the healthcare landscape. In just a few years, it has outdated the traditional care setting and prompted the adoption of new ways of delivering patient care that seemed unimaginable before.
When the push for social distancing intensified, medical care was delayed and forgone by most people. The healthcare industry, in their scramble to find ways to manage the disruption in the access to healthcare, turned to new technologies to support virtual care capabilities between clinicians and patients. Sadly, as the healthcare sector continues to provide patient care with these innovations, cyber threat actors have also been relentless in finding ways to exploit the vulnerabilities that came with these changes.
The Effects of Cyber Attacks on the Healthcare Industry
In 2021, tens of thousands of patient records from a medical center in Miami and a general hospital in Texas were published by hackers in the dark web in an apparent attempt at extortion . The files reportedly compromised included names, contact information, Social Security numbers, financial information, dates of birth and Medicaid numbers, in addition to patients’ medical history and diagnoses.
While cyber attacks are financially motivated, data breaches can have harmful effects on patients' health. A 2020 study on healthcare data breaches describes healthcare data as "more sensitive than other types of data because any data tampering can lead to faulty treatment, with fatal and irreversible losses to patients”.
Why is the Healthcare Industry Attractive to Bad Actors
Healthcare organizations, being treasure troves of high value information, have always been attractive to bad actors with a single health record selling upwards of $1000 on the dark web, according to cybersecurity evangelist Tony Goulding. The exodus from healthcare facilities equipped with enterprise-grade network security to homes with no IT support, have made the industry more enticing to criminals by further exposing opportunities for infiltration, as did the increase in remote work for nonessential staff.
Apparently, in the rush to provide contactless and convenient access to healthcare, security became an afterthought. Many of the newly adopted technologies have almost no security strategy, making them easy targets for cyber thieves and nation-state actors.
Fending off Cyber Attacks
Having proven its potential to be an efficient means to deliver flexible and collaborative models of care, virtual care is here to stay despite the risks they pose to the healthcare industry. So, what steps can healthcare providers take to ward off these attacks when working with virtual medical assistants?
Recognizing cybersecurity risks as a problem
The best defense starts with recognizing cyber risks as an issue. Every organization should have a small team that regularly checks the cyber risk profile of the organization and whether adequate measures are being done to reduce risks.
Only working with reputable medical staffing providers
Freelance virtual assistants and contractors placed through agencies with no IT support are more susceptible to cyber attacks. Hence, it is imperative to only hire virtual medical assistants from reputable and managed staffing services that already have security protocols in place.
Educating the workforce on cybersecurity
One of the biggest threats to organizations’ cyber security remains to be its employees. Organizations should take a proactive, ongoing approach to educating their workforce about the threats of cyber attacks and their best countermeasures.
Investing in security
It is very difficult to recover from a cybersecurity breach. Not only does it come with penalties, victims of cybersecurity breaches can be subjected to several audits, additional tax compliances, incident response plans and other ongoing regulatory reviews. And it doesn’t end there; falling prey to cyber attacks can ruin a business’ reputation among lenders, investors, and insurance companies.
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