Cybersecurity Risks in Health Data and Measures to Take

Abstract

According to existing data, the frequency of cyberattacks on hospitals and healthcare systems more than doubled from 2016 to 2021, and the incidents exposed the protected health information of nearly 42 million patients. The global picture and the risks of being hit combine a series of issues—loss of access to critical health data, high costs of responding and preventing cyber-attacks, and threats to patient safety—that has largely shifted the focus towards infrastructure defense, of health. The groups that perpetrate such attacks are generally aggressive and their attacks directed at critical infrastructure in hospitals and healthcare organizations can disrupt operations and patient access for weeks or even months.