Cybercriminals continue to seek access to sensitive health information ,which means healthcare organizations need to have a strategy protection data.
One of the favorite techniques of hackers is the use of ransomware. Recent research shows an alarming increase in ransomware attacks in the last month.
Hackers are exploiting the current public health crisis and targeting healthcare organizations.
In late June, the University of California School of Medicine revealed that it had been hit by a ransomware attack that led to a $1.14 million ransom for a decryption tool. Meanwhile, healthcare organization Care New England (CNE) was forced to work with a security firm to recover from a cyberattack that hit its servers and knocked out its systems.
“Malicious people want to do their work at the most difficult times, when people’s focus is elsewhere,” says Josh Gluck, an executive at Pure Storage.
The increased use of technology by healthcare organizations has created a perfect environment for hackers.
To protect critical systems and sensitive data, healthcare organizations need to think carefully about their current data protection strategy.
According to Gluck, many organizations are taking the necessary steps to back up their digital environment. However, they find that restoration takes time and effort. Many of these delays are due to the platforms that data. But moving to a modern data platform can significantly reduce this time.
“Data protection plays an important role,” Gluck argues.
Healthcare organizations must incorporate three elements to protect their systems and data:
Identity management
“It’s very complex to implement an identity management program, but it’s very useful, especially in times like these,” advises Gluck. It’s very important for an organization to know who the people are working with, what roles they have, and what data they need to access to fulfill their tasks.
Multi-factor authentication
This is a simple, yet extremely useful, method of protection. However, there can be challenges because many healthcare organizations use legacy systems that may not support multi-factor authentication. And in this case, a way can be found to implement the control.
Proper data management
When data is in a specific place and we know exactly where everything is, we can detect any suspicious movement of data from a system.
With the healthcare industry moving quickly to adapt to changing circumstances, organizations must remain vigilant about health data security and privacy.
