According to a recent post on the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) webpage, the biggest threat facing the health care industry doesn’t come in the form of a disease. To the contrary, it comes in the form of computer hackers who are skilled in the art of stealing confidential patient information.
The post also goes on to detail that every year cyberattacks on health care providers continue to result in millions of patients records being permanently lost.
In a July 2018, the Bloomberg article Cyber Attacks on Health-care Providers Are Up in Recent Months stated that only 33% of health departments in the United States are capable of defending themselves against a security breach.
For example, this article details how last June a medical-equipment company called Inogen Inc. had the personal information of almost 30,000 customers compromised once a hacker had gained illegal access to a staff member's email account.
The HIMSS post suggests that the first thing the health care industry needs to do to protect themselves is to understand the threat landscape and how it impacts this industry. They can do this by asking themselves the following questions:
An article in HealthTech Magazine which was published in August 2018 details how cybercriminals are gaining access to computers by exploiting the software supply chain. These kind of attacks come courtesy of a trusted channel that’s been compromised. Under these circumstances, a trusted channel that’s been hacked can sometimes go undetected for extended periods of time. These supply chain-based attacks usually take one of the following three forms:
A recent study by HIMSS Analytics and Symantec revealed the following statistics:
The health care industry needs to take the following steps to prevent future cyber attacks:
Hocking College offers an Associate of Applied Science in Healthcare Informatics degree. Applicants can receive the hands-on training they need to go from student to graduate in only four semesters.
For more information, please contact Healthcare Informatics Program Manager, Jade Cover, by email at coverj@hocking.edu or by phone at (740) 753-6417.
Since Autumn 2018, Hocking College has been offering a Cybersecurity and Network Systems program. In only four semesters students can graduate with an Associate of Applied Science in Cybersecurity and Network Systems Technology. All students need to succeed in this program are some basic computer skills and a willingness to learn.
For more information on Hocking College’s Cybersecurity and Network Systems Program, contact Cybersecurity and Network Systems Program Manager, Mark Riley at rileym24177@hocking.edu or by phone at (740)753-7209.