Cybersecurity has become a primary concern for small startups and large corporations alike. Whether it’s a global ransomware attack or a minor DDoS hack, everyone’s afraid of a hack, no matter how secure you think you are. And while ecommerce sites and social media platforms carry a lot of your information, there’s one industry that should be more worried than anyone: healthcare. Unfortunately, they aren’t doing everything they can to keep your medical history safe from hackers.
According to a recent study from ZingBox, over 70 percent of healthcare IT network providers believe that the traditional security solutions used to secure laptops and servers are sufficient to secure IoT connected medical devices. And while you might shrug this off as only affecting a small number of healthcare facilities, 90 percent of healthcare IT networks have IoT devices connected to them
“IoT technology presents special challenges to a healthcare organization’s ability to protect itself from both insider threats as well as external cyber-attacks across a wide range of attack vectors, as demonstrated by the most recent WannaCry ransomware and NotPetya wiperware attacks,” said Xu Zou, CEO and cofounder of ZingBox. “As these attacks continue to step to the forefront, companies deploying IoT devices need to be more cognizant than ever of their security measures.”
Cybersecurity is a major problem for everyone, not just the healthcare industry. Cyber attacks are projected to cost businesses $2 trillion in 2019 and high performing solutions are being made obsolete on a nearly daily basis. The reality is that hackers are always going to be able to match whatever you put in their path over the course of time. The key is to keep up with trends so you can be ahead of the curve.
Unfortunately, that is not what the healthcare industry is doing, as is evident from this survey. It found that over 76 percent of IT decision-makers within healthcare organizations are confident or very confident that all devices connected to their network are protected, a staggering number for how few are installing anything stronger than basic server protection.
“The results of the survey were sobering in terms of the risks the healthcare community faces,” said May Wang, CTO and Co-Founder of ZingBox. “This is a tremendous opportunity to raise awareness of healthcare organizations regarding their perception of security and their need to consider modern techniques such as cloud, machine learning and real-time remediation across an organization’s entire IoT footprint. IoT requires a more thorough approach to constantly monitor for deviations in behavior and provide alerts for suspicious behavior.”
Being catfished through a social media platform or having your identity stolen through an ecommerce site are not experiences that should ever be scoffed at. However, the healthcare industry is dealing with far more valuable information than credit card numbers and relationship statuses. If they have any interest in protecting the medial records of patients around the world, they need to make cybersecurity an unfettered industry priority. Because if they don’t, you’re going to have to do a lot more than change your passwords.
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