Cyber Attacks Against Health Care Organisations

The Heath Care industry is at high risk of data breaches and malicious cyber attacks, much like any other industry, no one is exempt. Within any organisation it appears the same trend emerges; employees can be your biggest asset but also biggest weakness. Educating your staff, implementing data protection policies and ensuring you have cyber security solutions in place is essential. Cyber criminals don’t care who they target, whether you’re a small local enterprise, operate across the UK  (for example, the NHS) or are recognised globally.

Three Quarters of Healthcare Organisations in the UK Suffered a Cyber Attack in 2019 (Clearswift)

With research highlighting that 67% of UK healthcare organisations suffered a cyber attack in the past year and reports that phishing and ransomware attacks are increasing, the need to use multilayered tactics is growing in importance.

Causes for data breaches and cyber attacks in the healthcare industry

• Viruses are caused by third party devices, such as USB sticks and LoT devices
• Employees share information with unauthorised recipients
• Employees click on malicious links are clicked on emails and social media

5 Simple Tips 

The healthcare industry holds masses and masses of sensitive personal data so it is alarming to see such a high number of attacks. Follow the below 5 simple tips to make you

1. Educate your staff 
2. Implement and monitor policies and procedures
3. Have Cyber Security and Disaster Recovery Solutions in place
4. Update from Windows 7 to Windows 10 
5. Always update and get your patch management in order

1. Educating your staff on the importance of Cyber Security as well as teaching them how to spot criminal behaviour, such as malicious links on fake emails is the one of the most effective measures you can implement. Being infected by malware and ransomware from clicking on links on phishing emails is almost too common, which is why it is important to educate your teams on how to spot a phishing email.
2. When data needs to be shared across departments and organisations in order to fulfil care to patients, it must be done securely to ensure data breaches do not occur. With third party devices posing such a risk, it is essential to have cyber security solutions and data protection policies in place. Stop the use of third party devices and instead use cloud based solutions to share data, enable password protection on documents.
3. We always recommend a multi-layered approach, which is why a combination of Cyber Security and Disaster Recovery solutions as well as educating your team is important. Could your organisation cope if it lost business critical data?
4. Windows 7 support ended in January 2020 meaning any data is now at risk. It is very important that moving to Windows 10 is at the top of your to do list in order to receive important updates to protect your computer from threatening criminal behaviour.
5.  When it comes to devices pressing the snooze button on updates is a big no no. Laptops, tablets and mobiles should all have the most up to date software and you should ensure that your business laptops are receiving regular patches to help satisfy your data is protected from cyber criminals. Having the most up to date version of an app will help protect you against getting infected with bugs. The reason for updates is to improve the security of your device, which protects your personal information. Hackers take advantage of outdated design which then puts your information at risk if you haven’t downloaded the latest updates.

For more tips on how to protect your organisation, visit the below blog post:

5 Ways To Protect Your Organisation