Report covers threats to cybersecurity infrastructure
Valuable data, outdated technology and the human element all play significant roles in the security of the healthcare industry, according to the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology's Hacking Healthcare IT In 2016 report.
Adversaries can use health data for identity theft, insurance fraud and financial gain, among other things, according to the report. Script kiddies, hacktivists, cybercriminals, nation-state actors and cyberterrorists are the industry adversaries detailed in report.
The human element--the "single weakest link of the healthcare cybersecurity infrastructure"--is slowly improving. "Ongoing training must be paramount in any responsible healthcare organization," the report says. "Adversarial initiatives typically start with targeting staff via spear phishing and watering hole attacks. The act of an ill-prepared executive clicking on a malicious link can trigger a hurricane of immediate and long-term negative impact on the organization and innocent individuals whose records were exfiltrated or manipulated by bad actors."
Read the complete report.
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.