Cybersecurity Steals Limelight as Health Care Goes Digital

Data security has become a major concern in the past few years, particularly in the health care industry. The industry has witnessed a digital transformation with the evolution of various rules and regulations pertaining to patient data security. In today’s technologically driven world, new technologies such as the cloud and next-generation databases are being deployed in hospitals and clinics to store and manage patient-related data. 

With increasing deployment of newer technologies and penetration of the internet, the number of cyberattacks and data breaches in the health care industry is increasing significantly. Reports suggest that nearly 34% of health care organizations were hit by a cyberattack by the end of 2020. Authorities fear that such an increased rate of cyberattacks will cause ample losses to the organizations. 

In order to address these cyberattacks and prevent them from happening frequently, health care organizations are paving their way toward digital transformation. Putting these factors in a nutshell, the analysts at Future Market Insights project the market for global cyber security is likely to exhibit 10.5% CAGR through 2032. This article focuses on the need for addressing data security in the health care sector, and what actions the top economies are taking to forestall the accelerating spread of ongoing cyberattacks.

How Are Health Care Organizations Addressing the Need for Data Security? 

Protecting sensitive information related to patients and their medical history is prompting organizations to deploy diversified technologies and strategies to identify risk. The percentage of risk involved with the technologies being used is dramatically increasing the number of attacks on health care organizations. In July 2021, the Oregon Anesthesiology Group (OAG) experienced a cyberattack, potentially impacting 750,000 patients and 522 current and former OAG employees. After the attack, the company was briefly locked out of its servers. 

Moreover, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported nearly 500 health care data breaches and 239.4 million cyberattacks attempted in 2020.  This number is predicted to rise owing to the rapid digitization of the health care industry. For attackers, it takes just a few seconds to invade an organization’s data, but it takes a lot of weeks to identify the breach, take protective measures against it, and penetrate the suitable tools for preventing such breaches in the future.  

To protect important data from attackers, health care organizations are increasingly investing in improving their overall cybersecurity infrastructure. This ultimately turns out to be an opportunistic situation for the industry leaders in the global cybersecurity market. For instance, in February 2021, the Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS) announced the launch of a no-cost ransomware protection service, Malicious Domain Blocking and Reporting (MDBR), for private hospitals in the U.S. The center fully funds this service for all private hospitals in the U.S. as part of its nonprofit mission to make the connected world a safer place. 

Increased demand for such advanced security services to mitigate the risk of cyberattacks has fueled the demand for network security firewalls. 

Preventing Cyberattacks on Medical Health Record Systems

Patient privacy is one of the most essential factors taken into consideration while opting for an electronic medical health record system. A health care organization well-equipped with an effective health care security program has an edge over other organizations owing to the safety and security of the medical records. 

As the presence of data security programs increases, cybercriminals are finding it difficult to attack critical medical health records. An effective health care security program tells the patients about the credibility and commitment of the organization toward the protection of their medical records. In May 2021, HCA Healthcare announced a new multiyear strategic partnership with Google Cloud focused on analytics-driven process improvement and digital transformation. 

The partnership is aimed at building next-generation operational models focused on actionable insights and improved workflows. In addition, the goal is to build and refine new workflows and innovate clinical decision support to improve quality, safety, and efficiency.

Current regulations pertaining to the security protocols for health care organizations seeking to adopt secure electronic health records systems are improving patient care and treatment. Both patients and healthcare professionals are guaranteed efficient utilization of the data for analysis and measures. 

In 2020, Forescout Technologies, Inc. announced that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has deployed the Forescout platform across 1.3 million unique devices at more than 280 physical locations, hitting a critical cybersecurity milestone for the agency. Additionally, in February 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the Veterans Health Administration has made progress toward implementing a modernized electronic health record system to gain more valuable insights from the medical records. 

The biggest advantage of an effective health care security program is that it enables organizations to respond to any data breach in a better way. A good communication system along with outstanding security programs guides the IT staff, security officials, communications team, and other organization authorities to ensure minimal damage and quick recovery.

Keeping this in view, many health care data security organizations are working on their offerings and launching innovative products. For instance, in February 2020, GE Healthcare introduced a new cybersecurity solution for hospitals known as Skeye for detecting, analyzing, and responding to security threats in real time.

Data Privacy and Protection a Global Health Care Sector Priority

It is imperative for health care organizations to protect sensitive health care data from the growing cyber threats. Designing a unique and efficient framework regarding data security is turning out to be one of the top priorities for the global health care sector.  The data security framework should not just focus on safely maintaining the records but also offer protection against cyberattacks. 

Cybercriminals thoroughly understand how health care organizations are desperately protecting the data from any kind of cyberattack. Therefore, they have started opting for different ways to attack and get control over sensitive data. For instance, in September 2021, Universal Health Services lost $67m to a Ryuk ransomware attack, forcing them to suspend all user access to its IT applications and related operations in the United States.

Given the sensitivity of stored data and the growing need for privacy and protection, several security safeguards have been deployed through the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Under these acts, the implementation of a variety of technologies has been suggested to tackle volumes of health care data. For instance, the frequency of data breaches in the health care sector over the last 2 to 3 years has prompted health care organizations to deploy contactless and radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers. RFID technology is actively helping organizations meet their safety and security needs. 

One of the top industry leaders, ELATEC, addresses critical cybersecurity and HIPAA vulnerabilities such as user authentication deficiencies, endpoint data leakage, and excessive user permissions within hospitals and other health systems. Furthermore, with health care becoming more vulnerable to cyber complexities, only matured and experienced cybersecurity experts can keep the massive health care data safe from cybercriminals.  

Conclusion

As we enter into a new era of technologically driven health care, the need to comply with norms relating to patient data privacy and transparency is rapidly increasing.  New and advanced IT solutions for the health care sector should come with the guarantee to control cyber threats. 

It has been rightly said that “Cybersecurity is much more than a matter of IT.” Mounting complexities associated with cyber frauds prove that it is extremely important for hospitals to start taking cybersecurity seriously. The adoption of cutting-edge technology solutions and cyber hygiene should go together. 

Furthermore, health care organizations are required to form protection strategies and solutions to share data, both internally and externally, while keeping the company standards in view. Therefore, data security systems are used to offer protection between the internal and external networks to prevent frauds and data breaches. All in all, data protection has turned out to be one of the top priorities of any health care organization over the past few years and is projected to stay in the limelight for years to come.

Author Bio: Aditi Basu is the Marketing Head at Future Market Insights (FMI), an ESOMAR-certified market research and consulting company serving clients in over 150 countries.