IT Insider Blog

E-mail is a pervasive target for hackers to exploit in healthcare and the problem is predicted to get worse. A 2018 HIMMS and Mimecast survey revealed that 87% CIO’s and IT directors surveyed believed that e-mail poses the greatest venerability to exploitation by hackers. E-mail’s sent by nefarious sources can cleverly deceive end users by looking legitimate and can contain links with embedded malware, viruses, and ransomware and all it takes is 1 click for an organization to be compromised.

As business operations continue to grow more complex and the sheer volume of devices connected to the internet continues to rise, many healthcare leaders are waking up to a new reality. Over the last decade new risks to data are posing an even greater risks to the long-term survivability of healthcare entities and patients they care for.

Rural healthcare providers across the U.S. are facing a wave of challenges like never seen before as widespread changes to healthcare legislation and changing market conditions are re-shaping how rural citizens get access the care they need.

Healthcare providers over the last decade have now become the target of cyber security attackers who exploit an industry weakened by historically low levels of security practices and insights needed to safeguard sensitive data. Governing bodies like the HHS and OCR are now increasing efforts to enforce tighter regulation as many healthcare leaders remain unaware of the risks involved with not adequately addressing compliance standards.

Over the last decade there have been major studies done to calculate the monetary and reputational costs of data breaches in the healthcare industry. Recently however many healthcare leaders are paying more attention to how cyber attackers are threatening the lives of the very patients they trying to save.

In 2018 the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigated and settled multiple cases resulting in over $28 million in fines and judgements, making it a record for enforcement activity. Enforcement actions by the OCR have increased steadily since 2014 as healthcare entities struggle to secure their protected health information and remain in compliance with federal laws.