Over the last few years, the healthcare sector has faced numerous cybersecurity issues that have turned security of patient data into a major issue. With the rise of digital health solutions, the world has moved to a point where vast amounts of patient data is stored electronically. However, this transformation has caused a 253% increase in cyberattacks, data breaches, and security threats that have compromised patient privacy and confidence. In response to those challenges, these two measures have quickly grown in importance for keeping top-secret information… secret.
The Importance of Cybersecurity in Healthcare
Cybersecurity Can Be Like Holding Water Or Surgery In A Nice Clean River
Healthcare cybersecurity is comprised of the technologies in place to protect electronic health information from unauthorized access, breaches, and other cyber threats. With cyberattacks targeting healthcare organizations growing increasingly sophisticated, strong cybersecurity practices have never been more important.
Data Breaches and Their Impact
In the United States alone, there were more than 600 healthcare data breaches reported in 2020, impacting nearly 29 million people. These incidents underscored to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that health IT systems were not secure and how crucial it was for data protection measures needed to be effective. Tax IDENTITY theft has turned into a difficulty concerning medical care agencies. These breaches have also come with significant financial ramifications, to the tune of millions in recovery efforts on the part of healthcare systems and reputational damage.
Common Cybersecurity Threats in Healthcare
Healthcare organizations have fallen victim to many cybersecurity threats putting patient information in danger. Top threats include ransomware, phishing, and insider attacks.
Ransomware Attacks
Healthcare providers have had to deal with ransomware attacks, making them one of the leading cybersecurity threats faced today. In these attacks, malware is used to lock down sensitive information, cutting off all access until the entity pays a ransom. Ransomware attacks in recent years have preyed heavily on the healthcare sector, where pressing patient care needs have impelled organizations to pay attackers — often with no guarantee of data return.
Last year, the health system was compromised and shut down in a typical ransomware attack that disrupted patient care all over Ireland. The incident compromised the personal health information for over 500,000 individuals and served to lay bare the disruptive power ransomware can have on healthcare operations.
Phishing Schemes
Healthcare cybersecurity has also faced substantial threat from phishing schemes. These attacks occur when malpractitioners impersonate genuine entities and fool people into sharing sensitive info such as login credentials or financial data. Phishing emails and messages have become much more sophisticated over the years, which has made it all too difficult for any working staff to discern and ward them off.
In 2020, a record number of 55% of healthcare organizations experienced phishing attacks as per a study conducted by the cybersecurity firm Proofpoint. Otherwise, successful phishing can lead to catastrophic effects, such as breach of data, financial losses, or patient trust.
The Critical Need for Data Protection
Why Data Protection is so Important in Healthcare
One of the most important factors in healthcare is patient data protection. In addition to the fact that sensitive data is at risk of being attacked by cybercriminals, patient and healthcare organizations have a lot at stake when it comes to data breaches. This data loss can contribute to numerous issues with regards to the well-being of patients which include identity theft, fraud, and emotional trauma — consequently undermining patient trust in healthcare systems.
HIPAA Compliance
The United States has HIPAA regulations that require privacy and security controls for anything considered identifiable patient health information. Healthcare must comply with further safeguards for protecting electronic health information such as encryption, access controls, and audit trails.
Failure to adhere to the rules of HIPAA can result in enormous fines. The corollary to egregious fines was of course proven in 2020 when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set a new record for HIPAA violations, totaling over $13 million in penalties. Penalties such as these have only further driven the point home that it is critical for practices to adhere to proper cybersecurity and regulatory best practices in order to remain compliant and maintain patient privacy.
Best Practices to Secure Patient Data
Healthcare organizations need to establish sound security strategies in order to deal with the battered landscape of healthcare cybersecurity. Such strategies should also be holistic in data protection nature, covering the gamut of technology, policy as well as staff training.
Risk Management
You need to take a risk management-based approach and identify the risks as part of your proactive method for dealing with cybersecurity threats. To that end, healthcare organizations should assess their IT infrastructure to determine weaknesses and take required security actions. The evaluation of threats (by determining in which a threat could be expected, and the consequent significance) helps them to prioritize their security efforts in an environment where all cannot be secured.
Published research in the International Journal of Medical Informatics found healthcare organizations that conducted regular risk assessments resulted in a 25% decrease in cybersecurity incidents. Focusing on risk management enables companies to build their cyber resilience.
Encryption Methods
Encryption is essential for protecting sensitive patient information. It converts human-readable data into a secret code which is of course not so easy for all to read. Both data at rest and when in transit should be encrypted to prevent breaches for healthcare organizations.
Organizations that deployed encryption were 60% less likely to experience a data breach, according to a Ponemon Institute survey. Focusing on encryption can have a major positive security impact for healthcare enterprises.
Incident Response Planning
Cybersecurity incidents inevitably happen; creating a reliable incident response plan to keep the cyber pirates at bay is a must. Healthcare organizations need to develop and put in place exhaustive plans that pave the way for actions to be taken if a breach occurs. This involves identifying the most relevant actors, defining communication channels, and roles.
One of the major attacks in 2021 happened at the University of California San Francisco. An incident occurred where a single computer became compromised, and as a result, sensitive data was put at risk. UCSF was on top of the situation and quickly responded to minimize the negative effects that could befall them. UCSF ran a reformatted triage table during the six weeks it took for the institution to initiate its recovery plan.
The Role of Staff Training in Cybersecurity
Staff training and awareness go hand in hand with the cybersecurity of any organization. Staff members need to be enlightened about the importance of ensuring their cybersecurity and lookout for any potential threats originating from phishing emails or social-engineered scenarios. Implementing security training among their staff members reduced the level of successful phishing attempts by 60%, according to a report conducted by KnowBe4.
Preparing for Future Cybersecurity Challenges
Indeed, with developments in technology and the sophistication of cyber threats continuing apace, it is almost inevitable that the healthcare industry will need to prepare for such future security issues. Predictions suggest that artificial intelligence and machine learning will contribute to solutions in the cybersecurity space. These are technologies that can analyze massive volumes of data to detect anomalies and spot potential threats as they happen.
The study conducted by the World Economic Forum showed that compared to companies not using AI for security prevention, those utilizing it could reduce the detection time for breaches by 60%. Implementing such a robust and proactive cybersecurity strategy will make healthcare organizations stronger and secure patient data.
A Call to Action for Better Cybersecurity in Healthcare
The necessity of meeting cybersecurity issues is paramount as the healthcare industry continues its march toward digital transformation. To ensure absolute data security and to uphold the integrity of their systems, healthcare organizations need a multi-pronged strategy that allows them to protect even the most sensitive patient data. There will be an ever-increasing focus on security in healthcare, as we move forward to a medical record which is completely secure and protects private information in a digital environment.
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