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 organizations also saw their safeguards against patient data exposure disintegrate as more employees worked remotely, bulk Covid-19 testing and immunization sites were set up, and telehealth usage skyrocketed. They were inundated with demands to share data with the media and the public at the same time. Then there were elective surgery halts, which cut off a vital cash stream.


Healthcare professionals are obviously exhausted after over two years of working in this stressful atmosphere. With so many competing objectives for their attention, details like password complexity, connection security, and compliance processes may not be front of mind for employees. Of course, bad actors looking to profit from stolen patient data are aware of the industry-wide fatigue and the opportunities it creates.


Behind The Scenes of The Attacks

Criminals seeking patient data usually adapt their tactics to crack the healthcare institutions' firewalls. But it is known that cyberattacks often rise around popular vacation seasons when hackers take advantage of hospitals' diminished staffing and defenses.


The primary motivation for these targeted attacks on healthcare systems when it is least protected is — you guessed it — profit. Hackers can extort millions of dollars from healthcare institutions seeking to prevent extended treatment disruptions by stealing and demanding ransom for patient data. Alternatively, hackers can use medical record data stolen from patients to sell "identity kits" on the dark web for up to $2,000, with buyers utilizing the information to establish phony IDs, make bogus insurance claims, and rack up additional charges.


With more than 31 million patient records compromised by cyber breaches in 2020, this narrative might become all too familiar – a problem not only for individuals who might be harmed but also for healthcare institutions that rely on patients' confidence for basic income.


Governance Against Attacks

However, healthcare organizations need good cybersecurity to prevent the damage, and good cybersecurity starts with robust information governance. Therefore, to avoid the many consequences of increasingly common and sophisticated attacks, it is recommended that companies implement well-funded and widely supported security and information governance solutions that are tailored to their individual, organizational culture, and operational demands and eventually aim to reduce risk to an acceptable level.


Yes, with the number of dangers to enterprises continually increasing, reducing risk to a manageable level will be a monumental task. But the compliance and security teams cannot meet the challenge solely through manual labor. Henceforth, they must have the right HIPAA Compliance Software in place and a tactical strategy, including unstructured analytics powered by automation and artificial intelligence.


Organizations must nevertheless guarantee that a robust foundation supports the technology. Organizations should use industry best practices to create policies and processes to secure data to establish a strong program. Furthermore, employee education through training materials and email programs is vital to maintaining a privacy compliance culture while remaining current on the latest dangers. It will also assist you in deciding where to invest resources to decrease risk proactively.    

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