Cyberattacks against healthcare facilities increased alarmingly last month, around 68 healthcare providers were locked out of their networks by ransomware attacks in the third quarter of this year, putting patient security and privacy at risk.
Without a holistic whole-facility cybersecurity approach, specialists fear that patients would be unable to get essential care at a targeted facility.
The Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, Israel, and Johnson Memorial Health Hospital in Franklin, Indiana, are just two examples of the medical facilities targeted.
The early-October cyberattack at Johnson Memorial Hospital locked databases and compromised patient data. A ransom amount was surprisingly not demanded.
Hillel Yaffe Medical Center was attacked by Black Shadow, a reportedly Iran-backed group, in early November. Investigators believed it would take many weeks to recover and grasp the full scope of what had happened because 290,000 people's personal data had been leaked.
Healthcare facilities' legacy OT equipment becomes exposed to hackers as they upgrade. Water, HVAC, oxygen, electrical, and other key systems are all connected, yet they may not be properly monitored or protected in terms of cybersecurity. Any of these utilities being compromised will have a detrimental influence on patient care, perhaps putting the lives of individuals being treated at risk.
Ilan Barda, CEO of Radiflow stated, “Accessing patient data is worrisome, but the idea of hackers gaining access to components in a specific ward or even a single operating room is alarming.”
“CISOs at facilities should focus on both IT systems and OT environments, starting from risk assessment to threat monitoring. There should be continuous holistic risk management for more mature organizations that combine both IT and OT systems. With Radiflow, teams can monitor the full range of a healthcare OT security from one central location.”
With 68 global attacks on healthcare facilities in Q3 of this year alone, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had warned of worrisome trends in 2021.
