Cyber Health

Healthcare Related Cyber Attacks Are On the Rise

The healthcare industry has always been a prime target by the Cyberattacker.  After all, some of our most confidential Personal Identifiable Information (PII) data sets are stored, ranging from our patient records to even our Social Security Numbers.  There have been key legislations that have been passed to help ensure a stronger security posture, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 also known as “HIPAA”.  But even despite this, Cyberattacks continue at an alarming rate. Consider some of these statistics:

“A rise in cyber attacks against doctors and hospitals is costing the U.S. healthcare system $6 billion a year. A recent research survey  ranked healthcare’s cybersecurity preparedness behind that of the finance, retail and energy industries.

The cost of a cyberattack for the average hospital is $3.5 million, but according to a HIMSS survey, 46 percent of hospitals spend less than $500,000 annually on cybersecurity.

Approximately 88 percent of CIOs and CISOs have reported increased cybersecurity budgets in recent years. Some 94 percent of medical institutions said their organizations have been victims of a cyber attack.

Expenses related to a breach – incident handling, victim notification, credit monitoring – and projected lost opportunities cost healthcare organizations globally approximately $233 per compromised record.”

(SOURCE:  https://www.syntrixconsulting.com/blog/cybercrime-in-healthcare-statistics)