Cyber security is healthcare’s hot potato today. Cybercrimes have affected the industry on a very large scale and there’s no permanent solution reached, if it even exists. With the rise of these threats at an alarming rate, majority of the healthcare companies have adopted various strategies to protect their patient’s data and all the critical information. “Busy fighting the outsiders, less attention is paid to the menace that lies inside.” It is a known fact that six out of ten cyber-attacks in the healthcare industry have an insider from the organization involved.
The unpredictability of the insider threat is more than an external one, pointing to a greater risk. Moreover, the trusted insider has legitimate access to all the systems of the organization and hence, the difficulty of going through the already installed security walls is eliminated. They also know what information is stored where, making it easier for them to breach the target data. All known and understood, it is not wrong to say that insider cyber-attacks are one of the greatest challenges for the healthcare industry in today’s date.
Insider threats being hard to identify and even harder to prove, necessary measures to eliminate them should be taken beforehand. From background check before hiring an employee, or collaborating with a partner, to timely monitoring the workforce to controlled and protected access to sensitive data, healthcare organizations today must take several steps to safeguard all its digitally stored files. Also, more education on cyber security in healthcare, provided to the current employees as well as the future leaders of the industry, will help in reducing inside threats. Along with this, the most important question you should be asking yourself is- “What steps will you take differently if you are already aware that you are going to be robbed, and by someone you trust?”
In the era where digitization has taken over the healthcare space, what can be a greater threat than cyber-crime? Realizing the same, many healthcare organizations, today, have strategized various fences against cyber-attacks. But, most of them fail to acknowledge the insider threats, focusing only on the external risks. As it is said widely, ‘Cleanliness begins at home’, it is not wrong to analogize it with the current scenario of cyber security.