4 Steps To Countering Healthcare Cyberattacks

With the dramatic rise in medical technology and the value of patient data, it’s no surprise that healthcare organizations are increasingly finding themselves on the receiving end of cyberattacks. Not a title any industry is eager to hold, the healthcare industry has been designated as having the most cyberattacks.

Here are four factors causing healthcare to retain this unwanted distinction.

1. The increasing number of connected medical devices

With the rise of virtual healthcare and soaring costs of healthcare overall, it’s especially critical for hospitals to remain competitive. The efficiency and effectiveness offered by connected medical devices aid in this quest. The industry has a strong appetite for more technology to help them see as many patients as possible. In a survey of 535 healthcare IT professionals, 59% said they had more than 300 network-connected devices.1

Unfortunately, these devices are notoriously challenging to patch and introduce a new set of security issues that makes it difficult to comply with regulatory requirements. The data transmitted between “wearable” devices, such as implants, and providers has emerged as one of the fastest-growing sources of attacks. In a recent report,2 it was revealed that more than half of connected medical devices and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices contain critical vulnerabilities to hospital networks.