written by: NetworkFort Team, info@networkfort.com
In the last week of September, Universal Health Services, America had faced a massive cyber-attack. It was so deadliest attack that Universal Health Services couldn’t recover itself from the damage caused to its IT systems. Computer systems at Universal Health Services began to fail to function properly on Sep 2, rendering the network shut down at approximately 250 of its hospital IT departments around the country. Though Universal Health Services stated that its systems are making some steady progress but, still full restoration of the data would be a cumbersome process. This medical organization was targeted with a malicious ransomware attack called Ryuk, according to media descriptions. This is one of the thousands of examples of escalating cyber-attacks that healthcare organizations are facing nowadays. Unfortunately, these health systems are already in crucial times due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cyber-security analysts opine that these ransomware attacks are running rampant for the last couple of years because of high pay ransom demands. And, the hospitals have to pay ultimately to restore their important data. Cybersecurity experts say ransomware attacks against hospitals have ratcheted up in recent years as organizations will pay high ransom demands to recover access to critical medical data.
Targeted assets in any healthcare organization
The above mentioned are the targeted assets in any healthcare organization with an elaborated description of cyber-attack percentage in these areas.
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Healthcare organization and cloud-computing adoption:
Healthcare organization that deals with numerous data of patients, staff, officers, and including very sensitive information, have shifted towards the adoption of cloud computing. Cloud computing gives several benefits to these health organizations like lower data storage costs, easy recovery of data, and strengthens the privacy of data. According to research and statistics, the cloud computing market in healthcare departments will boost to $92 billion by the next seven years.
However, the escalating usage of cloud computing will aggravate cyber-attacks concerns because medical data is way too confidential than financial information. Unfortunately, many medical firms and organizations are lagging in anticipating the upcoming cyber threats.
Threats that are faced by healthcare organizations:
Malware and Ransomware Attacks
Malware and ransomware attacks are very common and heaviest attacks. According to the 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report, ransomware attacks are reported 70% of the total attacks targeted towards health organizations. Small hospitals or large ones, no discrimination when cybercriminals come to set their targets, According to the Risk IQ brief in Health Sector 2020, small organizations were mostly affected.
Data Theft and Breaches
Data theft and breaches are other forms of cyber-attack in these healthcare organizations. Only in 2020, almost 28 healthcare organizations have reported their data breaches. The worst-case was Beaumount Health Data Breach that impacted over 110,000 patients. The cost of these breaches amounted to around $11 million, reported globally according to IBM Security Report.
Insider Threats
Insider threats also lead to cyber-attacks and they are still a tremendous problem in healthcare cyber-security, while many healthcare organizations are more concerned with combating external threats. They remain incognizant of the fact that insider attacks are as dangerous and deadly as outsides ones. Internal threats are reported around 48% of the total data breaches in 2020, according to 2020 Verizon DBIR.
Phishing Attacks and Employee Errors
An ignorant employee and a negligent worker pose the same degree of threat as a deliberated cyber-criminal poses to the hospital systems. These workers are connected to the hospital’s internal network and fell for an email phishing, exposing the hospital system to a malware attack. 25% of cyber-attacks are carried out due to human error and negligence.
Third-Party Errors/Attacks
There are some third-party workers or employees who are outsourced by the healthcare organizations, like contractors, business associates, etc., who have the access to the internal data network of the systems. These third-party workers intentionally or unintentionally cause damage to the systems that remain hidden for a very long time. The attack on the American Medical Collection Agency put the information of about 12 million patients at risk.
How NetworkFort provides security in healthcare organizations:
For all the aforementioned threats and cyber-attacks, posed to different healthcare organizations, NetworkFort provides pertinent services and desired products to address these threats. It also has launched a tool called NetworkFort that offers a platform to secure devices, deploy advanced AI-based IDSs, and design methodology to guarantee a risk-free cyber environment as well as keeping up with the HIPAA standards and framework. with the combination of these services and the right products, you can safeguard your network system.
For further details and services, please visit the website.