Cybersecurity: The Hidden Health Tech Crisis No One’s Talking About

The life-saving capabilities of technology in a healthcare environment are beyond dispute. Medical professionals in hospital environments rely on networked medical devices to access and share patient information rapidly to reduce the time it takes to make life-saving decisions and deliver essential patient care.

Connected devices in healthcare environments allow medical professionals to monitor patients more closely, improve medical assistance and use data for analytics and medical research. Technology is allowing medical staff to work smarter with earlier interventions and diagnoses in the treatment process.

But the increased use of IT in healthcare is not without its risks. 

Healthcare cyber attacks in the US rose by 55% in 2020, impacting more than 26 million people. Attacks on healthcare providers now represent a $13.2 billion industry, with the average data breach cost per record rising to $499 last year.