Pressing Cybersecurity issue in healthcare and how to mitigate it!

Although the ransomware WannaCry hit the internet in the year 2017, it's impacts are still felt even today. One of the industries that had suffered much due to the gruesome ransomware. From a single hospital in UK, the ransomware quickly proliferated and affected more than 200,000 computers across 150 countries.

Microsoft was the Operating System that fell prey as the ransomware encrypted the data and demanded a ransom payment in bitcoin currency. This cyber attack damaged the global economy by billions of dollars. There were nearly 2181 healthcare breaches, between 2009 to 2017, each with at least 500 records(HIPPAJournal.com), thus exposing nearly 176 million healthcare records, which covers a huge population. These alarming numbers indicate that cybersecurity is a major concern in the healthcare sector, and it should be the top priority of the industry to implement security measures and take steps towards the protection of data.

Security breaches are also done via mobile devices, as the usage of mobiles in the healthcare sector is ever increasing. The fact that most of the mobile devices fall short of the security standards which makes them vulnerable to malware and hackers. Fortinet's senior security strategist and researcher Anthony Giandomenico, stated that “Most of the users don’t know that their phones are as unsafe as their desktops and laptops, which, in turn, lowers their guard when determining if, for example, an email is legitimate or not.” There are ways to protect devices from these attacks and following are the measures to be considered.

1. Healthcare providers should encourage users to employ basic cybersecurity practices to avert cyber malpractices. SImle activities such as ensuring apps are up-to-date, installing malware protection on mobile devices and, only connecting to trusted Wifi networks, may save them from a lot of trouble.

2. Make use of network access control to secure the data, as it can scan devices for threats or out of date spyware protection, ensuring the equipment are safe.

3. Healthcare organizations should make it compulsory to use a secure platform to exchange patient information.