A Prescription-Strength Formula for Stronger Cybersecurity in Healthcare Organizations

The following is a guest article by Steven Stone, Head of Rubrik Zero Labs at Rubrik In early August, a ransomware attack disrupted operations across its network of 17 hospitals and more than 165 clinics in four states and forced some to rely on paper records. Some emergency rooms were shut down and ambulances diverted after the company took its computer systems offline to protect and restore them. Again. Here we go again. This is what most of us thought when we read this story. Cyberattacks on healthcare institutions are not only particularly galling, they’re growing. Healthcare organizations were hit with 1,426 attacks per week in 2022, a 60 percent increase over the previous year, according to Check Point Research. “From small, independent practitioners to large, integrated health systems, cyberattacks on healthcare records, IT systems, and medical devices have infected even the most protected systems,” the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says. “Given the increasingly sophisticated and widespread nature of cyberattacks, the healthcare industry must make cybersecurity a priority and make the appropriate investments needed to protect its patients.” There are some recommendations to that end, but first, let’s unpack why healthcare organizations became such a frequent target and the unique challenges they face in defending themselves. As much as the world might like to believe that even the most hardened cyber criminals would have enough he...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Ambulatory Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System LTPAC Security and Privacy American Hospital Association Cyberattacks Cybersecurity Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Healthcare Cybersecurity Healthc Source Type: blogs