Companies are considering cybersecurity as a purely technical issue falling only under the domain of their IT departments. When it comes to healthcare, it’s important to consider cybersecurity as a matter of patient safety, enterprise risk, and strategic priority. Healthcare industries continually face evolving cyberattacks that can put patient safety and enterprise credibility at risk.
The latest example is the Cyber-Attack At Mississippi’s coastal family health Center which leaked patient information. The data leak was confirmed after attackers tried to shut down computer operations. The press release reads: “We remain dedicated to protecting your personal information and apologize for any concern or inconvenience this may cause you”. However, there is no evidence of data misuse.
The need for cybersecurity in this industry is higher than ever before. Less awareness of cybersecurity is one reason which can lead to such breaches. All healthcare facilities and companies that handle, store, maintain or transmit patient health information to comply completely with The HIPAA law and its standards. To avoid such a scenario, the healthcare industry should be more vigilant to the importance of cybersecurity. In order to secure the industry as a whole, adequate security methods must be implemented, as well as cybersecurity training to educate all employees on the importance of security.