Malicious players over the years have always targeted the healthcare industry for carrying out their mischief. Their attempts are carried out because of the significant amount of valuable information contained in the health sector. In the recent past, we can see a rise in cyber-attacks because many medical activities have been carried out remotely. The adoption of the available medical technologies with remote operations allows patients to be checked and monitored from any place by medical professionals. Many devices are interconnected for achieving this. Several bits of viable info is sent via these means thereby making the healthcare industry quite prone to cyber-attacks.
In the same vein, a lot of healthcare info passes via various parties and companies. Many of them do not have sufficient security measures or lack sufficient knowledge of online practices. Cybercriminals use this fact to their advantage. So, cybersecurity is more necessary than ever as malicious attacks made by cybercriminals are not relenting. Keep in mind that cybersecurity predictions show that cybersecurity will remain a priority in 2021 for all healthcare companies. Here are the top five cybersecurity trends 2021 that you need to be aware of for the healthcare sector.
1. More number of Ransomware Attacks
The ransomware attacks stop authorized users from accessing their data and systems where significant data is stored. Unless they pay a ransom that is demanded by these criminals. The amount of money demanded by these cyber criminals that carry out these attacks can be substantial. This is true especially when people are locked out of their patient records and email accounts. Several attacks of this kind can temporarily prevent a patient's treatment that may have adverse effects on the health of the patient. Hence you need a proactive approach to deal with ransomware attacks by the healthcare sector. For example, all medical centers need to make backup copies of their patient's information to keep on working even when there is a ransomware attack by criminals. From having a top reputation among patients for any medical facility, they need to think about using reputation management experts that can help with the problem. This is one of the top cybersecurity trends now!
2. Critical to Secure the EHRs systems
EHRs or Electronic Health Records systems are digital platforms that contain all the medical records and history of the patients. The use of this system as one of the top cybersecurity trends has helped many organizations in improving their info sharing and it also helps in reliable data storage. However, this system has also raised the probability of an attack from cybercriminals on the medical data of patients. You are required to diligently guide the system to make sure that all the info of your patients is safe. You are also required to follow the medical privacy laws that provide clear guidelines about the handling of patient records by a medical facility. You can apply artificial intelligence to this EHR data as well for enhancing the workflow and assist in security. Watch this short video to understand more about EHR systems.
3. Advancements in the Security of Connected Medical Devices
These days we see many IoT or Internet of Things related devices such as those used for drug effectiveness tracking, wearable medical devices, sleep monitoring, and air quality sensors. These remote patient monitoring devices are common in many homes where they are utilized effectively. It is an improvement for the medical industry and nowadays these devices are widely used for a range of purposes in various areas of the globe. Because of their wide use, internet capabilities, and portability, they are quite susceptible to malicious criminals for hacking. So, there have been conscious efforts made for creating and improving these IoT devices. However, there is a need for more technological advancements for securing these devices and preventing them from being hacked.
4. Hiring Medical Content Writers
As described earlier, cyber security is a major concern in the healthcare industry and it must be treated as top priority in 2021. Healthcare organizations and medical professionals have to be aware of the possibility of cyber-attacks and they need to take the requisite measures for avoiding these attacks.
Most of these cyber-attacks take place via medical professionals that are end-users. It happens mainly because of a lack of technical knowledge and lack of info about better security practices for protecting medical data. There is an efficient way of making healthcare organizations aware of these cyber-attacks by taking help from medical content writers for creating informative content and write-ups related to cybersecurity in the healthcare industry and its significance. It is possible to hire freelance medical writers and also top researchers by using some online platforms available. Working with these medical writers from the web gives you greater flexibility.
5. Performing Risk Assessment Consistently
As everyone is predicting, most cyber-attacks are witnessed in the healthcare sector. You can perform consistent risk assessments to help curb these attacks. Performing regular risk assessments and verifying both products and services reviews can help healthcare providers in detecting points that will act as weak links for hackers in the security framework of healthcare organizations. These risk assessments conducted at fixed intervals will allow healthcare institutions to visualize and affirm any possible data breaches that will lead to significant loss of information. This will also serve an additional purpose of enlightening medical professionals about the detection of bugs in their systems.
Using VPN for protecting healthcare data
A VPN or virtual private network is a kind of encrypted internet connection that will allow users to transfer sensitive data securely. This will ensure that you are preventing any possibility of unauthorized user access. The use of VPN in the healthcare industry is a simple way of implementing network security and enabling data protection for the healthcare industry. Protection of data is one of the more significant aspects of HIPAA compliance. HIPAA needs healthcare organizations and their associates to have safeguards in place for securing the PHI or protected health information. You can check various lists available online to find the best VPN reviewed for your requirements.
Conclusion
In recent times we have seen huge growth in the healthcare industry. Many areas have seen a rise in use such as remote patient monitoring by using connected medical devices. But this growth has also developed ways for more malicious attacks on the medical information of patients. Therefore, cybersecurity has become one of the critical things for healthcare workers and companies for avoiding data breaches. You need to use the best available security practices and the latest cybersecurity trends in 2021 for making sure that you are protecting the patients and allowing smooth medical and operational facilities.
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