Increased Cyberattacks on Healthcare Institutions Shows the Need for Greater Governance
Understanding the surge in healthcare data cyberattacks, what's driving them, and what can be about it 2020 was particularly ruthless in terms of healthcare hacking attacks, according to the Wall Street Journal . The data derived from the US Department of Health and Human Services showed that more than 1 million people were affected by data breaches at healthcare organizations nearly every month in 2020. These alarming findings show how hackers targeted healthcare institutions during the pandemic. But considering how Covid-19 overburdened healthcare organizations' limited resources, many data breaches may as well have gone undetected. Since many hospitals were unprepared for Covid-19 surges, they were forced to reallocate resources from administrative tasks to patient care. As a result of the critical transition, essential data protection procedures went by the wayside, exacerbating the vulnerabilities that hackers have worked tirelessly to exploit for years. Many health o...