Majority find cybersecurity a growing concern
The 2015 HIMSS Cybersecurity Survey found that 87 percent of respondents name cybersecurity as an increasing business priority over the past year.
On average, healthcare security teams use 11 different technologies devoted to cybersecurity. More than half of healthcare organizations employ full-time personnel to manage information security. Despite that manpower, nearly four in 10 respondents said there are too many emerging threats to track.
Half of information security threats are identified by internal team members, while 17 percent are identified by an external resource like a cybersecurity firm. Almost two-thirds (64 percent) said a lack of appropriate cybersecurity personnel impedes their ability to mitigate cybersecurity events.
The threat of phishing attacks is driving 69 percent of respondents to improve their information security environment, according to the survey. The majority (87percent) use antivirus and anti-malware tools.
Most respondents said they detected the security incident within 24 hours, but 20 percent said they lost patient, financial or operational data.
Most respondents said they get information on cyber threat intelligence through word of mouth (60 percent), followed by third-party vendor threat intelligence feeds (49 percent).
The HIMSS survey collected responses from 297 healthcare leaders and information security officers.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.