Urgent challenge of cybersecurity in healthcare
By Admin | June 19, 2017
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Cybersecurity Task Force released their findings pertaining to cyber security and the healthcare industry. They are urging for a unified effort among sectors--payers, providers, medical device manufacturers, research institutions and software developers--to help stop attacks like the recent WannaCry ransomware attack which impacted dozens of hospitals.
They also found that small and medium providers lacked the resources, namely staff, able to address threats. More specifically, providers were most vulnerable when they did not have a designated chief information security person, instead leaving cyber security in the hands of someone already busy with handling patient and other information.
The report urges the industry to create a standard ratio of how many cyber personnel would be needed based on a provider’s size.
The security of medical devices was also a concern, calling on manufacturers to be more transparent about their ability to patch or replace at-risk software.
