What You Should Know: - As the fallout of COVID-19 continues to plague healthcare systems and hospitals, cybercriminals took a notable interest in these entities through malicious hacking incidents in the second half of 2020. In a new CI report released, Drex DeFord, former CIO at Scripps Health., Seattle Children's, Steward Healthcare, and strategic healthcare executive for CI Security, found that in the second half of the year, more than 21.3 million records were breached, an
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Escalating Cyberattacks on Healthcare Organizations Highlight Need for Security Interventions
Healthcare organizations have faced continual stress from heavy COVID-19 caseloads in 2020. Cyberattacks on their information networks also loomed as a serious threat, and the pressure to protect data is expected to grow this year, as more criminals target healthcare providers. Protecting patient data from unauthorized access has long been a regulatory prerequisite for healthcare organizations. But increasingly, cybercriminals see profit potential in attacking and crippling their networks,
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30 Executives Share Top Healthcare Predictions & Trends to Watch in 2021
As we close out the year, we asked several healthcare executives to share their predictions and trends for 2021. Kimberly Powell, Vice President & General Manager, NVIDIA Healthcare Federated Learning: The clinical community will increase their use of federated learning approaches to build robust AI models across various institutions, geographies, patient demographics, and medical scanners. The sensitivity and selectivity of these models are outperforming AI models
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COVID-19 Exposed The True Vulnerability of Healthcare Infrastructure
In 2019, 41 million patient records breached in 572 reported incidents at an average cost of $1.8 million per breach. These statistics are far from surprising with healthcare records selling for a reported average of $45 on the dark web. Unfortunately, the year 2020 aggravated these issues as COVID-19 exposed the true vulnerability of the healthcare infrastructure. Organizations not only had to manage the medical and financial impacts of the pandemic but also the security risks inherent in the
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How Hackers Are Targeting COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Chains – Q/A
With the US and other major countries poised to begin national
distribution of multiple FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines, the cybersecurity threats
to secure COVID19
vaccine distribution is imminent. Earlier this month, IBM released a report on malicious cyber actors targeting
the COVID-19 cold chain—an integral part of delivering and storing a vaccine at
safe temperatures. Impersonating a biomedical company, cyber actors are sending phishing and spear-phishing emails to executives and global
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7 Best Practices for Third-Party Risk Management in the Pharmaceutical Industry
The globalization of the pharmaceutical industry has forced pharma companies to outsource, increasing their reliance on third-party vendors and suppliers. As this supply chain grows in complexity, companies find themselves grappling with a growing amount of cyber risk. A data breach in the pharmaceutical industry can cost companies upwards of $5 million and costs can rise significantly if a third-party vendor or supplier is the cause of a data breach. For this reason, organizations must
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3 Telemedicine Security and Compliance Best Practices
The coronavirus pandemic accelerated telemedicine exponentially as patients and doctors switched from in-person visits to remote consultations. Health providers rapidly scaled virtual offerings in March and April and traffic volumes soared to unprecedented levels, with practices “seeing 50 to 175 times the number of patients by telehealth than before the outbreak,” according to McKinsey. By early August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expanded the list of
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Amidst the Pandemic, IT Teams Turn to the Cloud to Protect Patient Data
The challenges facing healthcare during COVID-19 are more than biological. Healthcare providers are weathering a perfect storm as hackers take advantage of the commotion and ramp up their attack frequency and sophistication. This isn’t surprising for those familiar with the hacker playbook, as cybercriminals typically go after victims that are the right combination of vulnerable and profitable. And right now, the valuable troves of personal health data held by providers, focused on battling
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Telehealth and Cybersecurity: What You Should Know
Healthcare providers are seeing between 50 and 175 times (1) more patients via telehealth than before. Telehealth platforms* offer solutions for a wide array of different healthcare issues. An estimated 20 percent of all emergency room visits and 24 percent of routine office visits and outpatient volume could be delivered virtually via telehealth. Telehealth is a win-win for providers and patients. It both increases the availability of care while also reducing costs. However, telemedicine
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Digital Defense Offer $1M in Free Ransomware Vulnerability Assessments During COVID-19 Pandemic
What You Should Know: - Healthcare organizations not currently served by Digital Defense can sign-up to receive a free assessment over the next 60 days. Ransomware assessments will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis or until the $1 million offer is exhausted whichever comes first. Digital Defense, Inc. today announced a free, $1 million dollar offer to help healthcare organizations prevent ransomware attacks and maintain focus on important, life-saving
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