FINAL WORD
A cybersecurity diagnosis for the healthcare sector with breach-likelihood
Saket Modi , Co-Founder and CEO at Safe Security , tells us that the healthcare sector can improve its cyber-risk management by adopting a proactive strategy that includes knowing an organisation ’ s breach-likelihood in real-time .
For more than the past decade , healthcare has been the biggest target of data breaches . The total average cost has increased to US $ 9.23 million in 2021 from US $ 7.13 million the previous year , demonstrating a 29.5 % rise .
Cyberattacks in healthcare are unfortunately not limited to their financial , regulatory and reputational impact since they have a direct consequence on lives .
An Alabama-based resident claimed negligent homicide for the death of her infant because the hospital ’ s fetal monitors were inaccessible as a result of a ransomware attack , leaving its systems locked for eight days . For instance , if a hacker tampers with CT or MRI scans , it could also lead to incorrect medical procedures / surgeries , incomplete diagnoses , and reduced emergency or urgent care .
In such a scenario , the healthcare sector needs to quickly improve its cyber-risk management . This is possible only if it moves away from the traditional reactive and point-in-time approach in cybersecurity to adopt a predictive and measurable method instead . Adopting a proactive strategy includes knowing the organisation ’ s breach-likelihood in real-time and its financial impact on the organisation .
The current state of cybersecurity in healthcare :
The NotPetya attack happened five years ago . Since then , has much changed in the healthcare sector ? The cost of ransomware alone has grown by 1094 % since 2015 .
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