Will 2020 be the cybersecurity wakeup call healthcare needed?
The pandemic exposed the need for hospitals to shore up security fundamentals and infrastructure, re-think incident response plans, and use tools rationalization to reduce coverage gaps.
It would be difficult to overstate the cybersecurity challenges faced by healthcare entities—providers in particular—in 2020. Hospitals and health systems were already prime targets for cyberattacks due to the huge amount of personal information contained in patient records. This year, two opportunities presented themselves to cybercriminals: IT staff was stretched thin by pandemic-related activities, while employees working from home created a wave of new vulnerabilities.
No one will be surprised to learn that the breach statistics reported in the 2021 Horizon Report are dismal. More than 500 healthcare organizations reported a breach of 500+ patient records, with 23.5 million individuals impacted. During the first 10 months of 2020, the number of reported breaches rose 18% over the same period in 2019.