How Do They Hack Hospitals? – Cyberthreats In The Digital Health Era

Discussion about cyberthreats is and will increasingly be crucial in the medical field so as to better address and prevent them. This issue is particularly concerning as the world is increasingly turning to digital solutions to access healthcare while we must limit physical visits. However, these discussions should not revolve only around strengthening the IT infrastructure with anti-malwares. This won’t cut it as, in addition to the technological component, there’s very much a social component in hacking into healthcare facilities. Let’s decrypt how this is the case; and consider additional measures that all of us can take to further secure our healthcare institutions and their precious data. The larger trend in ransomware in healthcare When talking about cyberthreats in healthcare, the most common ones are ransomwares. These involve infections happening not through pathogens but rather by hackers. The latter infect IT systems with malwares or digital viruses to encrypt crucial files. These paralyse whole infrastructures as that information is inaccessible until after paying the required demands, usually through cryptocurrency. While we started this article with examples from 2020, such cyberthreats were commonplace well before the pandemic. One of the high-profile ones happened back in 2017 with the WannaCry attacks on 61 NHS institutions. It led to the cancellation of operations and clinical appointments, loss of internet connection in hospitals and diver...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Covid-19 Healthcare Policy Security & Privacy Hospital data security cybercrime cybersecurity wannacry ransomware data breach hipaa virus NHS cyberattack Acronis Mandiant social hacking Kevin Mitnick Rapid7 social eng Source Type: blogs