TRIMEDX Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity Scott Trevino recently contributed a piece in Healthcare Business Today outlining why and how healthcare systems should implement cyber solutions before it’s too late.
Nearly 90% of healthcare organizations surveyed have experienced a cyberattack within the past year—many face them almost weekly. Each healthcare cybersecurity breach compromises patient care and costs more than $10 million on average. More than 20% of healthcare system cyberattack victims reported an increased mortality rate, and more than half saw poorer patient outcomes after delayed procedures and tests. These statistics illustrate the importance of an effective cybersecurity program.
In addition to the value of patient information, medical care’s critical (and often urgent) nature makes these organizations a lucrative target for hackers because healthcare providers do not have the luxury of time when determining a response. In 2021, the healthcare sector had the highest increase in both cyberattack volume and complexity and has endured the highest average data breach cost of any industry for the last 12 years. With the ever-increasing stakes, leaving vulnerabilities unmitigated is not a viable strategy. A proactive and optimized cybersecurity program is essential to an effective breach prevention, detection, and response strategy that reduces the impact on an organization’s patient safety, quality of care, reputation, and trust.
To tackle cybersecurity head-on, healthcare organizations must address one of their most significant weaknesses—connected medical devices.