Healthcare Cybersecurity Consulting

Chronic underinvestment in cybersecurity plagues healthcare IT

The Increased Need for Healthcare Cybersecurity Consulting

We live in an environment where our systems are continuously under attack from all sorts of malicious actors trying to take advantage of any information they can access. For healthcare organizations, this is a compliance issue. Healthcare IT professionals must ensure they can protect their patients and systems from these types of attacks. Every healthcare entity has an absolute obligation to ensure that they are compliant with security standards.

Most healthcare systems have basic firewall protection – simple intrusion detection, generally hardware-based, and occasionally will conduct scans on their environment – like a home with a lock, but no alarm system for notifying administrators when intrusions happen. However, cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated and it’s becoming impossible to react to each threat manually. Machine learning is necessary to adapt and scan the environment rapidly for breaches.

Healthcare Providers are Losing the Cybersecurity Battle

Medical providers handle tremendous volumes of high-value data daily. In addition, the stored data within healthcare systems is very detailed and offers hackers a wealth of information, ranging from social security numbers and insurance information to addresses and prescriptions. This offers cybercriminals many opportunities to find ‘big ticket’ targets, which can offer the most value.

The Healthcare industry is mostly targeted for financial motives and has the highest cost per breach for any industry. Recent US cybercrime studies show the average cost of a cyber-attack is $1.1 million and that cyberattacks cost America’s hospitals roughly $6 billion a year.

The fast-paced atmosphere, an increase in workloads, and the need to deal with multiple patients at once create an environment full of risks. Chronic underinvestment in cybersecurity also leaves hospitals exposed and unable to detect attacks. Not to mention smaller medical facilities, which may house less user data, but also have lower security budgets. This combination of issues makes small organizations easier targets, which can in turn offer backdoor access to larger institutions.

It is time for healthcare organizations to re-assess and equip their security teams with the resources needed to keep their data, staff, and patients safe. As healthcare cybersecurity continues to develop, it is more important than ever for medical providers to hire CISOs or vCISOs. These professionals can provide proper cybersecurity consulting for leadership and ensure proper budgets for security solutions.

Dynamic Cybersecurity Consulting

Managed Healthcare Cybersecurity

Outsource your organization’s cyber security processes to save money and time, and also overcome the very serious and growing cyber security skills gap.

Virtual (vCISO)

Virtual CISO (vCISO) as a Service allows healthcare organizations immediate access to a security leader who can help build an effective security program without adding to overall headcount.

Managed Detection Response and Remediation (MDRR)

An outsourced service that can provide organizations access to a pool of security researchers and engineers, who are responsible for monitoring networks, analyzing incidents, and responding to security cases.

Incident Response

Additional resources aren’t necessary for implementation, management, and maintenance. An outsourced solution delivers turnkey, automated services.

The healthcare sector is the most-targeted industry, accounting for 41 percent of all cyber security breaches.

The Five Functions of Cybersecurity

The following are the primary pillars for a successful and holistic cybersecurity program. This framework aids organizations in expressing their management of cybersecurity risk and enabling risk management decisions.

Identify: Develop organizational understanding to manage cybersecurity risks to systems, assets, data, and capabilities.

Protect: Develop and implement the appropriate safeguards to ensure the delivery of services.

Detect: Develop and implement the appropriate activities to identify the occurrence of a cybersecurity event.

Respond: Develop and implement the appropriate activities to take action regarding a detected cybersecurity event.

Recover: Develop and implement the appropriate activities to maintain plans for resilience and to restore any capabilities or services that were impaired due to a cybersecurity event.

Even with so much information available about how to protect your network and business from data breaches and cyber attacks, a surprising number of businesses aren’t prepared. Read on to learn how to make your company an exception.

Learn more about cybersecurity risks and preventive action.

Are you ready to develop an organizational understanding to manage cybersecurity risks across systems, assets, data, and capabilities?