The Importance of Cybersecurity to the Healthcare Industry
Healthcare organizations have access to extremely sensitive and valuable data such as patient health records and payment card data. They are also increasingly reliant on Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices to provide care, and attacks against these networked devices can result in data breaches or disruption to critical care.
Strong cybersecurity is vital to the security of healthcare organizations’ sensitive data and critical IT applications and services. Without the ability to identify and prevent common attack vectors, attacks against healthcare organizations place patient health and safety at risk.
Top 8 Cybersecurity Challenges Faced by the Healthcare Industry
Healthcare organizations face numerous cybersecurity challenges as they work to secure their data and systems against cyber threats. Some of the top cybersecurity challenges that healthcare organizations face include the following:
- Vulnerability of Legacy Systems: Healthcare organizations are often dependent on legacy systems, such as outdated workstations and networked medical equipment. These systems commonly contained unpatched vulnerabilities, making them easy for attackers to exploit.
- Data Breaches: Healthcare organizations store large volumes of sensitive data, and the advent of electronic health records means that this data must be accessible to patients. This balance between security and accessibility makes it more challenging for healthcare organizations to protect this data against unauthorized access and potential breaches.
- Insecure Medical Devices and Equipment: The rise of the IoMT means that healthcare organizations are reliant on a growing number of networked devices. Like other Internet of Things (IoT) devices, IoMT systems commonly have poor security, creating new weak points that an attacker can exploit to gain access to the organization’s systems and patients’ sensitive data.
- Ransomware and Malware: In Q3 2022, 1 in 42 healthcare organizations were impacted by ransomware, making it the most targeted industry vertical. Ransomware attacks on healthcare are common due to the value of their data and the fact that organizations are more likely to pay to restore operations and resume patient treatment.
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): A DDoS attack is designed to deny access to applications or systems by bombarding them with more traffic than they can handle. Cybercriminals are increasingly using DDoS attacks as part of ransom campaigns, sometimes combining them with ransomware or data theft.
- Phishing: Phishing attacks provide attackers with an entry point to an organization’s systems by stealing login credentials or deploying malware. These attacks are common because they are relatively easy to perform and rely on tricking users rather than attempting to overcome an organization’s cybersecurity defenses.
- Fragmented Security Architecture: Often, healthcare organizations have an immature cybersecurity program based on an array of point security products. Nearly 80% of healthcare organizations rely on more than ten point products for security. This makes it more difficult for healthcare organizations to identify potential attacks and remediate them before attackers can access sensitive data or deploy ransomware on the organization’s systems.
- Limited Budget: Healthcare providers have a limited budget as they have to allocate most of their budget to patient care, and cybersecurity may not seem like a priority when allocating finite resources. An inefficient and disconnected security architecture can also rapidly consume resources as companies pay for overlapping and redundant security solutions or face the costs of a successful data breach or other security incidents.
Healthcare organizations face a variety of security challenges, and some, such as cybercriminals’ focus on them, are outside of their control. However, with the right security program and architecture, healthcare providers can significantly reduce their exposure to cyber threats and the cost of cybersecurity.
The Need for Comprehensive Cyber Security Solutions for Healthcare
In the healthcare industry, the cost of a successful cyberattack can be significant. A breach of patient records can expose sensitive health records, payment card data, and other private information. A successful ransomware infection or DDoS attack could impair the organization’s ability to provide critical care, potentially causing injury or death to untreated patients.
While healthcare organizations face many security challenges outside of their control, there is room for improvement. For example, organizations in the healthcare industry have the highest average number of security vendors. Over three-quarters of healthcare organizations use more than ten point security products, fragmenting security visibility and slowing threat detection and response.
This reliance on a disconnected security architecture composed of numerous point solutions has multiple impacts on the organization. Configuring, monitoring, and managing multiple point solutions takes time and resources away from other security tasks. Additionally, a reliance on multiple solutions from different vendors increases the probability that some security functionality will be duplicated while security gaps leave the organization vulnerable to attack.
One way that healthcare organizations can improve their security is by adopting a consolidated security architecture focused on threat prevention rather than threat detection and response. Security consolidation provides organizations with the centralized visibility and control necessary to manage complex security architectures. A prevention focus helps to minimize the cost of cyberattacks to the organization by identifying and blocking threats before they reach corporate systems.
Improving Healthcare Cybersecurity with Check Point
Healthcare organizations are a prime target for cybercriminals, commonly operate complex IT architectures composed of insecure systems, and have a high cost of data breaches, ransomware, and other cybersecurity incidents.
One of the ways that healthcare organizations can improve their defenses against advanced cyber threats is by embracing a consolidated security platform. By streamlining and integrating their security architectures and purposes, healthcare security teams can more rapidly identify and respond to incidents, reducing the cost to the organization. Learn more about how Check Point Infinity can help consolidate your organization’s security architecture.
Check Point offers various security solutions tailored to the unique needs of healthcare organizations, including support for healthcare IoT, multi-cloud deployments, and HIPAA compliance. For more information or a demo on how Check Point can help to secure your organization’s Azure cloud environments, check out this ebook.
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