Following the news that in 2016 the healthcare industry suffered on average one breach a, Jason Allaway, VP of UK and Ireland at RES commented below.
Jason Allaway, VP UK & Ireland at RES:
“The news that the healthcare industry suffered on average one data breach a day in 2016 should serve as a stark warning to organisations. The industry has been a hot target for cyber criminals and in 2017 this will only escalate.
The reason the healthcare sector saw such high levels of data-related attacks is the value of the data that is being targeted. Rather than the monetary value which drives many data breaches, healthcare data holds within it a life or death value. Unless hospitals have a stringent back-up policy and can recover this data, there is little option other than paying the ransom so that clinicians and other medical professionals can continue to provide critical medical care.
We’re also already witnessing a resurgence of doxware in 2017, where criminals threaten to not lock down data, but publicly release it. This is a clear threat to medical organisations owing to the amount of sensitive, personal information that they hold. With attacks coming from all angles, organisations need a proactive, sophisticated and varied security strategy to protect themselves, and their patients, in the year ahead.”
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