Cybersecurity in Healthcare - Data Protection Tips

Data is a valuable asset for every company and is also known as the new oil for businesses to grow. Data should be protected at any cost to ensure customer safety and business growth. And with the amalgamation of technology in every industry, users have availed numerous boons, but it comes with certain drawbacks as well, i.e. cyber attacks, data theft, and many more.

Data has played a vital role in every industry. Be it the financial sector, e-commerce sector, or the healthcare industry it has helped every sector evolve and serve the best to the customers.

Now, when we talk about data, the different sectors have different types of data. For example - in the financial sector data can be information about a person’s financial status, bank-related information, and many more.

Similarly, in the healthcare sector, data is the collection of a patient's health records, which eventually helps a hospital or a healthcare institution to manage its performance.

In this article, we will fill you with some essential tips on cybersecurity in healthcare and how to protect patient data.

So, let us get started.

What is Healthcare Cybersecurity?

Healthcare cybersecurity is the solution that helps protect medical data, including the data collected from medical equipment, health tracking devices, sensitive patient data, and many more that help medical organizations serve better and control their operational costs.

Cybersecurity in Healthcare helps in securing data from unauthorized access by hackers, data theft, data breaches, cyber-attacks, and others and ensures that the patient’s data is kept safe and confidential with the use of several tricks and technologies.

Additionally, healthcare cybersecurity has benefits that enable the protection of data and other sensitive information from unauthorized access.

It ensures the security of a patient’s life and also helps in gaining the trust of a patient towards the medical institution.

Now that you know what cyber healthcare security is you should also learn about all the possible threats that you might come across if you are from the healthcare sector.

Cyber Threats in the Healthcare Industry

Some of the possible cyber risks in the healthcare industry are -

Attacks on Network Vulnerabilities
DDoS Attacks
IoT Attack
Man in the middle Attacks
Phishing
Ransomware Attack

Now that we have the list of the most common forms of attacks and cyber threats in the healthcare sector, let us also discuss them in detail.

Attacks on Network Vulnerabilities - Network security attacks are among the most common threats to the healthcare industry, and come in many different types among which the most common ones are HTTPS spoofings, Malware, that targets wired and wireless networks that fools the users into giving up their personal information like the username or password.

DDoS Attacks - Also known as Dedicated Denial of Service attacks, they send a large amount of traffic to disrupt the normal traffic, making a healthcare server and other resources to be unavailable which leads to brand damage, revenue loss, and many more.

IoT Attack - It is another threat that leads to the loss of the patient's personal information by attacking the high-end medical instruments used in the medical procedures, and even the auxiliary devices as well.

Man in the middle Attacks - It is another common form of cyber attack in the healthcare industry, where cyber criminals gain unauthorized access to steal the personal data of the user’s resulting in severe damages like login credentials, identity theft, and also the bank account details and the card numbers as well.

Phishing - It is one of the most common cyber threats and also the common point of entry for any cyber attack. Phishing is a social engineering attack transmitted via emails or text messages, in the form of links or attachments.

It allows the attackers to get access to a healthcare system, get the credentials, and also leads to gain information regarding sensitive patient data that might be a threat to the life of the patients, and also a threat to the medical institution as well.

Ransomware Attack - It is a type of malicious software where the attackers remove or blocks access to the data or other sensitive information that are essential for a medical organization until a ransom is paid, which might also lead to the paralysis of the entire clinical operations and workflow of the medical center.

Tips to Ensure Cybersecurity in Healthcare

Now that you know about the common cyber threats in the healthcare industry, we shall move ahead with the essential tips to ensure cybersecurity in healthcare.

Some of the tips that you can consider are -

Educating the healthcare staff regarding security factors is an important thing to consider if you want to ensure cybersecurity in this particular industry. It helps in improving the security of the healthcare industry and also enables the elimination of the possibility of cyber attacks.
Control access to healthcare data with 2-factor or multi-factor user authentication, user biometrics like facial recognition, eye scanning, fingerprint, Log access, heightening password security, and many more.
Implement data controls like monitoring risky behaviors like attempts to block access to the data, sending data by email, copying to external drives, printing data, and many more. This will help in alerting you and take the necessary precautions when needed.
Also, practice data encryption and decryption to avoid data breaches and malicious attacks that might put the healthcare institution and its operations at risk.
Ensure the security of the wireless network infrastructure and messaging systems.
To ensure cybersecurity in the healthcare sector, it is also essential that you secure the endpoints which include mobile phones, laptops, desktops, or any connected devices such as printers, fax machines, and many more.
Conduct risk assessments regularly to eliminate the risks of security breaches and ensure the privacy of health information.
Additionally, keep a backup of the important data and other essential information to continue to serve the patients with accurate data whenever needed in any emergency without any failure.
You can also restrict access within the organization as per the roles and responsibilities to keep the data and necessary information safe.
You can also use a firewall, maintain anti-virus software, and also update the passwords regularly.

Those above are just a few of the tips that will help you in securing the data in the healthcare sector, but if you are already in this sector or have healthcare software you can steadily consider implementing these tips to ensure cybersecurity.

Conclusion

Now that you have a basic understanding of healthcare cybersecurity and you also know about the tips to ensure cybersecurity, you can move ahead with your healthcare software project by outsourcing a software development company to deliver the best services without any risks and threats.

Also, make sure that you do thorough research to emit all the risks and threats that you might come across during the development and post-development of the project.

FAQs

What is healthcare cybersecurity?

It is the technique that ensures the security of the healthcare systems like the data and other sensitive information that might put the patient's life at threat.

What are the common cyber threats in the healthcare industry?

The common cyber threats in the healthcare industry are -
- Attacks on Network Vulnerabilities
- DDoS Attacks
- Man in the middle Attacks
- Phishing
- Ransomware Attacks and many more.

How can we secure healthcare data?

Some of the ways of securing healthcare data are -
- Educating the healthcare staff
- Using a firewall
- Installing anti-virus software
- Conducting regular security checks
- Enabling two-factor authentication, and many more.