The past few years have emphasized just how important cybersecurity is. As cybercrime reached record heights and more companies went digital, industries realized their current security efforts fell short. Healthcare is a prime example.

The medical sector has had the second highest number of data breaches of any industry for more than five years. This became increasingly noticeable in 2019 alone, when the industry experienced 525 data breaches, up from 369 the year before.

The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened this issue. The last two years saw more than 870 data breaches affecting 500 or more patients’ health information. Cybersecurity budgets in this sector need to be bigger.

Cybersecurity Threats Facing HealthCare

A few specific risks pose the biggest threats to the medical industry. As is the case with many sectors, the most common cybersecurity threat facing healthcare is human error. Non-malicious misuse of company systems and employees falling for phishing attacks are common security issues across medical organizations.

In some cases, this is as simple as an employee clicking a wrong button or overlooking a step, accidentally exposing sensitive data. However, the implications are often far more severe. Healthcare professionals aren’t usually cybersecurity experts, and many fall for avoidable phishing schemes, leading to more dramatic instances of cybercrime.

One of the most concerning of those more severe threats is ransomware. At least 91 health organizations suffered ransomware attacks in 2020—almost double the 2019 figure. These attacks affected the data of more than 18 million patients and cost $9.42 million on average.

These cybersecurity threats have risen so quickly because of two main trends. First, healthcare companies are rapidly digitizing, so their technology adoption is outpacing their security maturity. Secondly, the pandemic has emphasized just how valuable medical data is, and cybercriminals have noticed.

Current Efforts Are Not Enough

Despite (Read more...)