Intelligent CISO Issue 33 | Page 44

industry unlocked
David Higgins , EMEA Technical Director , CyberArk
The Coronavirus pandemic has caused chaos and uncertainty among us . However , one thing ’ s for certain – cybercriminals are targeting the healthcare sector at a higher rate than ever before . David Higgins , EMEA Technical Director , CyberArk , discusses the importance of building a resilient healthcare sector for the country ’ s future success .

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EXPERT DISCUSSES STRENGTHENING HEALTHCARE ’ S CYBERDEFENCES FOR FUTURE SUCCESS

Last year , the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced that better technology is no longer a ‘ nice to have ’ for the NHS , but should be considered vital . His announcement came in January 2020 , prior to the pandemic , and has undoubtedly proven true since , although perhaps in ways none of us could have foreseen back then .
When Mr Hancock made the announcement , he made it clear that AI and Machine Learning will become a key priority in patient care from now on . While this progress will have a profound effect on the quality of our healthcare , it isn ’ t without a catch . The catch is that our increased reliance on technology is attracting more and more unwarranted attention from cybercriminals .
Our most recent threat landscape report – a study reviewing the main cyberthreats the world faces today – discovered that healthcare organisations are being targeted at a higher rate than ever before . In fact , cyberattacks affected 50 % of healthcare organisations within the three years preceding the study . It ’ s not only the theft of data that is accounting for this trend either . A recent cyberattack in Germany indirectly led to a death after a hospital ’ s computer systems were deactivated and a patient had to be redirected to another hospital for treatment .
The UK ’ s National Cyber Security Centre has also identified a raised threat level across the healthcare sector since the start of the pandemic in March last year , serving further evidence that healthcare is under increasing pressure from cybercriminals .
Out of all the healthcare organisations we studied in our recent report , almost one in five identified privileged users – accounts with access to sensitive data and assets – as the highest priority security threat . Prompt action must be taken and emphasis must be placed on protecting personal health information that is so often targeted .
Clouds gathering over healthcare
Healthcare organisations are prime targets for attacks because they possess a plethora of sensitive and potentially valuable information — much of it located in the cloud . Recently , the NHS announced its intent to create a nationalised approach for the digitisation of millions of GP records as part of the government ’ s ‘ cloud first ’ policy .
The transition to cloud in the healthcare sector has been extensive . Our data indicates that 43 % of all healthcare organisations surveyed deploy or store patient data , including data subject to regulatory oversight , in the cloud . Nearly half ( 46 %) are deploying or storing cloud-based business critical applications , including revenue-generating customer-facing applications , in the cloud . Furthermore , 45 % of healthcare organisations are deploying critical business applications on Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS ) offerings – including customer-facing
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