New applied sciences have taken many medical processes digital, with healthcare organizations counting on knowledge for every thing from affected person data to appointments and extra. Some great benefits of utilizing expertise in healthcare are clear: improved accuracy, effectivity and collaboration, which may result in higher affected person outcomes and scale back caregiver burnout. Nevertheless, there’s additionally a draw back to this pattern. Because the reliance on expertise grows, so does the chance of cyberattacks.
Healthcare organizations are sitting targets for cybercriminals, who view affected person knowledge as a beneficial commodity. In 2021 alone, a number of high-profile healthcare knowledge breaches resulted within the publicity of 45M sufferers’ non-public info. Based on Politico, the variety of hacks and knowledge breaches at healthcare organizations has practically doubled within the final 12 months. Equally, Sophos, a cybersecurity agency, reported that ransomware assaults practically doubled from 34% in 2020 to 66% in 2021.
In consequence, healthcare organizations are below rising strain to guard affected person knowledge from malicious actors.
Due to the kind of knowledge saved by healthcare organizations, the results of those assaults might be devastating, starting from the theft of delicate affected person info to the disruption of important care processes. As well as, there are additionally monetary prices and the potential for reputational injury. With cyber threats changing into extra refined and much more damaging, it’s essential for healthcare organizations to place cybersecurity on the high of their precedence record.
A number of safeguards are already in place to guard affected person info, such because the Well being Insurance coverage Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), signed into legislation in 1996. Nevertheless, the rise in cyberattacks reveals that these protections are merely not sufficient, and sufferers are taking notice.
Well being customers are more and more conscious of the dangers posed by knowledge breaches and cyberattacks. In a 2021 examine by the Pew Charitable Trusts on affected person privateness issues, 62% of respondents mentioned they’d “critical privateness issues” rergarding their PHI.
And their issues are legitimate. Throughout the nation, many healthcare employees nonetheless use unsecured strategies, akin to textual content messaging, fax, and electronic mail, to speak about sufferers. Sadly, this leaves affected person info weak to being accessed by unauthorized people. Utilizing unsecured strategies places sufferers susceptible to having their PHI uncovered and will end in HIPAA violations, which may result in pricey fines.
Happily, there are a number of steps that healthcare organizations can take to make sure they’re defending affected person info from these evolving threats. A few of the simplest measures embrace:
- Conducting a danger evaluation to establish potential vulnerabilities.
- Implementing sturdy safety measures, akin to encryption and two-factor authentication.
- Coaching staff in tips on how to shield delicate knowledge.
- Investing in a HIPAA-compliant communication answer.
The healthcare business is below fixed menace from cyberattacks. By adopting these and different measures, healthcare organizations may also help to enhance their cybersecurity and mitigate danger. People who fail to take action will possible face critical penalties.
Picture: Traitov, Getty Pictures
