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Cybersecurity Business Evangelist
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Written by KRIS SEEBURN
H
ealthcare data breaches have risen nearly every year from 2010 through 2019 and the security risks jeopardize hundreds of millions of patients records. Although physical theft used to be the data breach method of choice, now hacking has become the most prevalent method. This partly stems from more information being stored electronically and network servers becoming a more attractive hacking target. However, much like the rest of the world, healthcare organizations are shifting work to cloud services in order to improve accessibility and patient care. The migration of these workloads and moving valuable information such as PHI (personal health information) and PII (personally identifiable information) to the cloud has also led to cybercriminals taking a particular interest in the industry.
As organizations seek to protect their patient information from these growing threats, demand for health informatics professionals who are familiar with the current state of cybersecurity in healthcare is on the rise. Having shifted workloads to the cloud, healthcare organizations have highly connected systems that run the risk of being deeply affected even if the attack takes place on smaller, partial systems. In other words, a cyberattack in one place could bring down the entire system. In May 2017, the WannaCry ransomware attack forced multiple hospitals across the United Kingdom to turn away ambulances transporting patients and cancel surgeries that were within minutes of starting. Even basic processes like admitting
patients and printing wrist bands were compromised. The number of ransomware and other malware attacks is rising incredibly fast in the healthcare industry, putting human lives as well as critical data at risk.One of the key aspects making healthcare organizations a top target is the value of their data. Commonly, a single stolen credit card number yields an average $2,000 profit and quickly becomes worthless. Healthcare data, however, such as
