How to Protect Healthcare Infrastructure from Cyber Risks
Cyber-attacks are an ever-increasing threat to Healthcare infrastructure, especially legacy devices. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) bear responsibility for protecting devices, both old and new, from cybersecurity threats to mitigate the risks to patient safety.
With hospitals now standing as the #1 target for cybersecurity threats due to the personally identifiable information they hold, it’s critical to reduce an OEM device's cyber risks.
If any device falls prey to an attack, it can put the patient’s information, health, and safety at risk.
Why do Medical Devices Need Cybersecurity?
A heavier reliance on technology to store and track patient information increases vulnerability if the proper precautions are not taken. In 2020, 513 entities were involved in health-related data breaches in the United States alone.
Legacy devices pose one of the biggest pain points as many rely on outdated operating systems. According to Medical Device Network more than 40% of medical devices are too outdated for security updates or patches, while 83% of medical imaging devices are legacy systems that are too outdated to update.” Why is health-related data so invaluable to hackers? ZME Science found that medical records are sold on the black market at a valuation of 50 times more than stolen credit cards.
With this in mind, medical devices with software capabilities need cybersecurity to keep the information they store secure.
How to Implement Cyber Security Protocols
One of the first steps to implementing cyber security protocols in your healthcare facility is educating staff on best practices to keep information secure and what to do if a breach occurs. Acting quickly and correctly is the key to managing an attack before the damage becomes detrimental.
Implementing cybersecurity protocols can be broken down into two elements: visibility and control. Let’s discuss both.
VisibilityThe device manufacturer's first challenge was efficiently servicing their customers’ Dell IT hardware for their Picture Archiving & Communication System (PACS) after the warranty ended.
ControlControl is achieved through assessing the situation, maintaining the staff, and having the skills and tools to react and respond.
At a minimum, companies must have:
What Are the Most Common IT Security Weaknesses?
When attacks occur, they target hardware, firmware, wearables, BYOD devices, 'Internet of Things' devices and infect through API’s, in addition to employee systems, cloud services, and/or e-mails.
The most commonly targeted IT security weaknesses are network endpoints and employees. Phishing and ransomware are the two most popular tools of hackers. They use these methods to find: medical information, addresses, and financial information.
Hackers capitalize on targeting weak links though:
Most companies aren’t aware of a breach until it is too late. The median time to discover a breach is typically measured in months. When a breach does occur, most organizations are reluctant to inform customers or law enforcement.
Well-prepared companies, on the other hand, have a breach response plan outlined and tested. Partner with Quest to develop a data protection plan.
How Can Partnering With Quest Help?
Most enterprises will be attacked or incur some cyber security issues every year, but Quest International’s top-tier white-glove IT Service helps companies stay prepared. It is always better to be proactive rather than reactive, so it makes sense to have an IT Managed Services provider also provide IT security services on the devices they already manage.
IT Security now requires more resources and skills. As sophisticated as IT breaches have become, some of the most practical solutions are quite simple. However, these solutions require constant attention and monitoring of employees, devices, and IT systems.
The problem is that companies have IT staff fixing IT infrastructure problems and end-user issues, all while working on internal projects. Without an “eyes-on” approach by skilled IT security professionals, a company is vulnerable to IT security breaches.
To be best-protected, you need a dedicated IT security staff, or an IT Managed Services Provider like Quest, which has available security staff and security protection tools.
As mentioned previously, legacy products are a pain point for medical device cyber security. These legacy products, however, do not have to be the weakest link in cyber security systems. How so? By utilizing cloud-based systems.
Read on in our article about how and why Quest can convert legacy on-premise applications into the “Cloud” for OEMs.
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