October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and with the number of attacks being launched at healthcare providers still on the rise, it’s the perfect opportunity for healthcare IT leaders to review their cybersecurity postures. In this news roundup we take a look at the impact of ransomware on healthcare providers, explore why healthcare should be considered part of national critical infrastructure, and take a closer look at ways to improve security and compliance.
Ransomware Attacks Have Direct Impact on Patient Care
Healthcare providers have always been a prime target for cyberattackers. With records containing complete PII, gaining access to a healthcare organization’s data has been a priority for each new wave of bad actors. Ransomware has hit healthcare providers hard in the last four years and ransomware-related homicide charges have been filed on more than one occasion, including a recent suit against a hospital and physician following the death of a baby born during a ransomware attack in 2019. As the COVID pandemic continues to have a significant impact on healthcare providers the “U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services[has] issued a security bulletin warning of credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.”
Read more here.
Healthcare is Part of America’s National Critical Infrastructure and Needs [Podcast]
After the last 2 years of the pandemic there should be no doubt that healthcare needs to be considered part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. But for many years this hasn’t been the case with the focus falling on the power grid, communications networks, and other physical structures. In this Future Healthcare Today podcast host, Matt Langan, talked with Cathy Lester, Managing Partner, Business Development for Healthcare at Verizon, and Greg Garcia, Executive Director of Cybersecurity for the Health Sector Coordinating Council, about the security needs of the healthcare sector and what can be done to protect this most essential service.
Listen to the podcast here.
Finding and Fixing the Weak Links in the Provider Cybersecurity Ecosystem
When most It leaders think about their cybersecurity posture, they more than likely focus on network security and internal controls such as employee email security and systems access. But with more and more healthcare services going online, particularly during the pandemic, security needs to be focused on external end users as well.
The digitization of healthcare information while a boon in terms of portability and interoperability presents challenges in terms of HIPAA compliance and security challenges including data breaches. But what if there was a way to improve the security of forms so that online healthcare interactions were secure from the first moment of contact?
Ready to learn more? You can do that here.
