Report Examines Top Healthcare Data Security Threats

Report Examines Top Healthcare Data Security Threats

  • Mar 14, 2022

Protected Harbor, a full-service IT solution and consulting firm, just announced the launch of its latest whitepaper on healthcare cybersecurity. The whitepaper, entitled “2021 Healthcare Data Breach Trend Report” offers readers an insight into evolving healthcare data breach patterns, predictive threats for 2022, and a playbook on how to increase IT durability to stop future healthcare data attacks.

“Due to the financial value of patient health information, electronic health records stored in healthcare organizations are a major target for cybercriminals,” said Richard Luna, CEO of Protected Harbor. “Attacks and exploits are evolving every day, becoming more sophisticated and carrying more devastating payloads. Protections must be implemented at every layer of a system.”

The healthcare data breach report, conducted by Protected Harbor, included statistics from 686 security breaches of 500 or more healthcare records; as reported by HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR). 74% of all healthcare data breaches are from hacking and IT incidents, attributed to understaffed healthcare IT departments, legacy technologies not configured properly for new medical technology, and a lack of interoperability standards. This problem is costing companies around $9.23M per data breach, as reported by IBM.

The Threats
As the industry continues to evolve and respond to the data growth from increased usage of medical devices and technologies, more vulnerabilities are discovered. The “2021 Healthcare Data Breach Trend Report,” by Protected Harbor, has identified the following top healthcare data security threat issues heading into 2022:

IoT connected medical devices
mHealth & Telehealth technologies
The Cures Act & remote patient access
Understaffed & underfunded IT departments
Lack of employee security training

The Solutions Improving healthcare cybersecurity and network architecture will harden healthcare infrastructure, increase application durability, decrease overall costs, and increase public trust. The report also identified the following data protection suggestions for Healthcare IT departments:

Fast healthcare Interoperability resource standards
Multi-factor authentication
Mobile device security strategy
Isolated and validated backups
Integration of managed service teams

“Digitalization has drastically increased the amount of data and how the healthcare industry does business. But the original network architectural designs were not meant to handle this size of a workload,” continued Luna. “Teams need to do more regular penetration tests, malware tests, backup validation, disaster recovery drills, improve monitoring, run compliance scans, and keep to a maintenance schedule. It is not easy to keep track of so many moving parts that have been integrated since Covid-19. That is why so many HCIT departments are teaming up with managed service firms.”

The Numbers Additional findings from the 2021 Healthcare Data Breach Trend Report, include network server attacks accounting for 53% of all incidents in 2021, followed by email attacks at 27%. 21% of breaches can be attributed to unauthorized access, such as granting too much-privileged access to third parties. Hacking and IT incidents targeting outpatient and specialty clinics have grown 41% in the past year. 30% of all large data breaches in the U.S. are from hospitals. And California has the most healthcare data breaches, making up 10% of all breaches in 2021; followed by Texas (8%) and New York (6%).

The full 2021 Healthcare Data Breach Trend Report can be found on http://www.stopthebreach.org.

Featured

  • The Evolution of IP Camera Intelligence

    As the 30th anniversary of the IP camera approaches in 2026, it is worth reflecting on how far we have come. The first network camera, launched in 1996, delivered one frame every 17 seconds—not impressive by today’s standards, but groundbreaking at the time. It did something that no analog system could: transmit video over a standard IP network. Read Now

  • From Surveillance to Intelligence

    Years ago, it would have been significantly more expensive to run an analytic like that — requiring a custom-built solution with burdensome infrastructure demands — but modern edge devices have made it accessible to everyone. It also saves time, which is a critical factor if a missing child is involved. Video compression technology has played a critical role as well. Over the years, significant advancements have been made in video coding standards — including H.263, MPEG formats, and H.264—alongside compression optimization technologies developed by IP video manufacturers to improve efficiency without sacrificing quality. The open-source AV1 codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media—a consortium including Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon and others — is already the preferred decoder for cloud-based applications, and is quickly becoming the standard for video compression of all types. Read Now

  • Cost: Reactive vs. Proactive Security

    Security breaches often happen despite the availability of tools to prevent them. To combat this problem, the industry is shifting from reactive correction to proactive protection. This article will examine why so many security leaders have realized they must “lead before the breach” – not after. Read Now

  • Achieving Clear Audio

    In today’s ever-changing world of security and risk management, effective communication via an intercom and door entry communication system is a critical communication tool to keep a facility’s staff, visitors and vendors safe. Read Now

  • Beyond Apps: Access Control for Today’s Residents

    The modern resident lives in an app-saturated world. From banking to grocery delivery, fitness tracking to ridesharing, nearly every service demands another download. But when it comes to accessing the place you live, most people do not want to clutter their phone with yet another app, especially if its only purpose is to open a door. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • AC Nio

    AC Nio

    Aiphone, a leading international manufacturer of intercom, access control, and emergency communication products, has introduced the AC Nio, its access control management software, an important addition to its new line of access control solutions.