The healthcare industry is experiencing a surge in transformative new technologies, arriving on the market daily and opening the doors to better treatment, productivity, and communication within healthcare facilities.
While the adoption of new equipment is tempting – even necessary in many cases – healthcare organizations cannot lose sight of the very real cyber-security risks associated, and the necessary precautions which MUST be taken.
Top Challenges in Healthcare Network Security
- Securing the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
- Proliferation of Telemedicine and Care Clinics
- An Evolving Threat Landscape
- Maintaining Compliance and Accreditation
Securing the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
IoMT has much to offer healthcare facilities – with patient experience enhanced and treatment outcomes improved – but the historically lax security of “smart” devices can’t be ignored.
IoMT devices connect to a huge range of sensors and monitors, making them entry points to larger hospital networks and sensitive electronic medical records, or a devastating ransomware attack that holds critical systems hostage.
Proliferation of Telemedicine and Care Clinics
Remote treatment of patients has care facilities seeing benefits in a big way.
• Decreased cost to patient ($45 for a virtual visit, vs. $100 for an in-person appointment)
• Patients don’t need to take time off work to see a doctor
• Doctors can work from anywhere, at any time convenient to them
Because telemedicine produces a sea of new data to be accounted for and secured, the technology is not without its risks.
An Evolving Threat Landscape
Ransomware works by infecting a computer, locking users out of the system, and then holding the decryption hostage until the victim pays a fee.
Relying on access to accurate information from EMRs in order to provide critical care, the healthcare industry has emerged as a popular target for ransomware extortion largely because the stakes are so high. With an urgent need to restore service for their patients, hospitals are more likely to pay criminals in order to reinstate critical systems.
Maintaining Compliance and Accreditation
Achieving and maintaining regulatory compliance is critical in the healthcare industry, enabling facilities to reduce risk and increase patient confidence. Failure to comply with regional standards ranges in fines from hundreds, to upwards of millions of dollars, to say nothing of the costly loss of credibility and potential revocation of medical licenses.
SOLUTIONS
WatchGuard Dimension captures network events occurring at all locations, at all times, for all devices. Dashboard views and automated reports – including special reports for compliance – enable users to spot trends and stop malicious activity.
Total Security Suite offers the most comprehensive portfolio of network security services, from traditional IPS, GAV, application control, spam blocking, and web filtering to more advanced services for protecting against advanced malware, ransomware, and the loss of sensitive data.
WatchGuard Wi-Fi Cloud solutions are engineered to provide a safe, protected airspace for staff and public Wi-Fi environments, while eliminating administrative headaches and greatly reducing costs.