Healthcare organizations face unique risks that affect their ability to achieve business objectives. They have access to high amounts of money and intelligence information for cyber thieves and nation-state actors.
Medical and pharmaceutical companies rely heavily on technology and interconnected systems to support operational, clinical, and financial processes. They need robust cybersecurity to safeguard data, ensure patient safety and security, and comply with regulatory requirements.
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Data Breaches
As one of the most sensitive sectors of any economy, healthcare organizations are particularly vulnerable to data breaches. This information can provide a wealth of intelligence to criminals and dangerous actors.
Cybercriminals target healthcare facilities to gain access to this rich payload of information, either to sell on underground markets or to use for extortion or hacktivism. They can also contaminate the system with malware to interfere with critical systems like those that control vital medical equipment or send information between locations.
The healthcare industry transmits data across campuses, between doctors, and to insurance companies. The transmission technology is often not secure enough, exposing it to hackers who can use man-in-the-middle attacks to snoop on private (and very valuable) user information during conversations or data transfers and steal it.
Breaches can also result in phishing attacks that compromise staff’s credentials and expose them to malicious trickery. Research has shown that employees under pressure and adjusting to new working environments are likelier to fall victim to phishing scams and malicious attacks. This makes the need for robust cybersecurity procedures more urgent.
As technology becomes increasingly integral, implementing stringent cybersecurity in healthcare is crucial to protect sensitive patient information and ensure the resilience of healthcare systems against potential cyber threats.
Identity Theft
Medical data, including diagnosis and treatment information, is susceptible. It can contain patient names, addresses, phone numbers, lab test results, and genetic information. That data can be up to 10 times more valuable to cybercriminals than credit card info.
Many healthcare organizations need more resources, training, and awareness to defend against cyberattacks, such as phishing campaigns or ransomware attacks. They also tend to have fewer policies and fewer staff who understand how to protect themselves and their patients from these threats.
Additionally, some rural areas rely on one hospital within 100+ miles, meaning an attack could shut down a clinic and leave thousands without vital care. In addition to backup systems, hospitals must encrypt data in transit and at rest using homomorphic encryption or secure multiparty computation. They should also keep logs of unauthorized data operations to identify and remediate any breaches quickly. The best way to reduce risks is by creating a culture of cybersecurity where staff view themselves as proactive defenders of their patients and the organization’s data.
Fraud
Cybercriminals target healthcare organizations’ sensitive data, delicate financial information, and interconnected medical equipment and devices. Surgical instruments, intelligent heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and medical Internet of Things (IoMT) devices are all potential targets for attackers.
Attackers use links or attachments in phishing emails, social media posts, or text messages to infect computer systems with malware that spreads over the clinical network. Cybercriminals also target healthcare organizations’ vendors to gain credentials that they can then use to infiltrate the organization’s supply chain and steal valuable data or assets.
Attacks on hospitals can disrupt healthcare services, impact patients and their families, and put the public at risk. In rural regions, where a single hospital may serve thousands of people within a 100-mile radius, a cyberattack on one facility could leave the community without access to vital medical services. Moreover, hospitals that share patient records with pharmaceutical research and manufacturing partners as part of clinical trials depend on interconnected networks. Attacking a connected hospital could impact those partnerships and even the pharmaceutical supply chain.
Denial of Service Attacks
Hospitals have a lot of valuable information that cybercriminals want to steal. This data is used for identity theft and fraud, and it includes sensitive medical records that describe treatments, diagnoses, and prescriptions. These files can be sold on the black market for significant financial gain.
In addition, a healthcare organization’s network is vulnerable to attacks that can disrupt patient care. For example, cyberattacks can cause computer systems to crash or fail. These incidents lead to delayed operations and rescheduled appointments. This can affect patient care continuity and lead to staff and patients’ frustration.
Moreover, hackers can use malware to snoop on private (and very valuable) user data during data transfers or discussions, leading to significant losses and penalties for confidentiality breaches. Attackers can also use network vulnerabilities like ARP cache poisoning, HTTPS spoofing, and others to penetrate the vital bastion of healthcare centers — wired and wireless networks that give access to patient information. Criminals can also use ransomware to encrypt data and demand money for decryption. This can paralyze the clinical system, preventing surgical and life support equipment from working.
Ransomware
Health care is one of the most vital sectors in any country and a high-value target for hackers. Hackers seek valuable data, including patient health information (PHI), financial information such as credit card and bank account numbers, medical research and innovations, and more.
Cyberattacks on healthcare systems can result in data breaches, compromising patient privacy and leading to costly fines for non-compliance with HIPAA regulations. These attacks can also affect critical healthcare services and cause business disruption, such as patients diverting to other facilities for care or delayed procedures.
Ransomware, a type of malware that locks a computer system or files and demands payment to unlock them, is another major threat to healthcare organizations. Interpol warned that ransomware attacks targeting hospitals and healthcare institutions are increasing globally. This attack is hazardous to healthcare because it can spread through phishing emails and exploit kits. Infected users and endpoints can become targets for additional attacks, so cybersecurity must be robust to prevent infection.
