Data Security At the Core of Healthcare Ecosystem

Healthcare has always been at the forefront in adopting every new technology advancement.

The industry has transformed over the years by implementing advanced and high-end technology solutions part of medical equipment and laboratories.

The digital trend added to the healthcare industry’s efforts taking it much closer to the digital ecosystem. Resultant is what see around as Electronic Health Records (EHR), healthcare apps, remote health assistance, and more.

Advent of new devices and ever-increasing service offerings extended the IT scope of healthcare industry, making it one of the key technology adopters among other industries.

Exactly at this juncture lies the challenge too, the challenge of cyber security!

Like every other industry, healthcare has been vulnerable to cyber-attacks over the period owing to patient data, Intellectual Property information, medicinal formulae, and more confidential information it involves.

What Surveys Say?

  • Healthcare industry has seen the record number of cyberattacks during 2015-2017, with each year surpassing the previous year’s records
  • 45% of healthcare organizations suffered with more than five data breaches each during 2014-15, with 113 million records compromises in 2015 alone
  • Around 100 million health records were stolen from more than 8,000 devices from more than 100 nations in 2015
  • 2017 saw an average of 32,000 intrusion attacks a day per healthcare organization compared to 14,300 attacks in other industries
  • High demand for medical records is among the key factors behind growing cyberattacks in healthcare; the demand for EHR data is far more compared to financial information in healthcare
  • Demand for EHR data stands USD 50 in the black market against USD 1 for a credit or social security card number
  • 477 breaches exposed nearly 5.6 million patient records in 2017 alone
  • Healthcare suffered 2-3X more cyberattacks in 2019
  • Healthcare firms likely to spend USD 65 billion on cybercrime products and services by 2021

It’s Time to Act!

As the 2015 predictions say, data breaches alone are likely to cause more than USD 300 billion, of cumulative lifetime patient revenue, loss to the healthcare industry over the next five years.
But in contrast, the measures to tackle cyberattacks remain very little.

Cybersecurity spending in healthcare is expected to be not more than USD 10 billion globally by 2020.

Most recently, Ransomware has thrown a serious challenge to data security in healthcare.

Despite having cybersecurity programs, the basic nature of healthcare operations demanding speedy access to patient data and continuous communication makes the industry an attractive option for cyber threats.

Moreover, as part of the growing culture, organizations are allowing staff carry their own devices at work. But security aspect remains a serious question.

At a more serious level, researchers also talk about viruses that even morph the CT and MRI scans.
All this show the level of IT security vulnerability in the healthcare industry.

And, it’s time to act upon with a proper cyber security strategy that safeguard your crucial networks and confidential data.

StealthLabs Hears You!

StealthLabs is a team of information security experts with deep subject matter expertise in various cybersecurity services such as Identity and Access Management, Compliance and Regulatory, Incident Management Solutions (IMS), Data Management and Governance, and more.

We hold a proven track record in addressing almost every concerning IT security threat today and aims to offer a future-proof security mechanism in return.

We have worked with all industries and our clients include many Fortune 500 firms. We wish you could join the list of our esteemed clients.