CS1803

healthcare
PROTECTING DATA TO PROTECT PATIENTS
CYBER CRIMINALS ARE NETTING MASSIVE FINANCIAL RETURNS FROM RANSOMWARE AND OTHER
CRIPPLING CYBERATTACKS AGAINST HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS. HOW CAN THEY BE STOPPED?
MARK SANGSTER, VP AND INDUSTRY SECURITY STRATEGIST WITH ESENTIRE, OFFERS HIS INSIGHTS
Healthcare providers, support
services and technology
manufacturers have emerged as
a favoured target of cyber criminals.
Beyond the headlines of NHS shutdowns
and delayed patient care, multiple
studies, from the Information
Commissioner's Office (ICO) to security
research institute Ponemon, confirm
healthcare as the industry's most
vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Operational cyber-attack data generated
from 24x7 monitoring of healthcare
providers, insurers and equipment
manufacturers indicate that these
organisations face a significant exploit
every hour of the day, which is four times
more than financial services or law firms
(2018 eSentire Security Operations Data).
Such exploits vary in nature, but require
security expert intervention, after the
exploit evades standard prevention
technologies, such as anti-virus, firewalls
and intrusion prevention systems.
"Headlines about systems hospital
shutdowns only serve to paint healthcare
as a lucrative target and invigorate
criminal activities to develop industryspecific,
contextually-accurate lures that
yield higher success rates in network
infiltration and malware infections," says
Mark Sangster, VP and industry security
strategist with eSentire. "Attacks today
are more targeted and obtain payments
through extortive negotiations.
Ransomware attacks (malware that locks
and encrypts files and then demands
payment to unlock the files) have evolved
to become denial-of-service attacks to
threat medical service disruption and
patient care interruption."
CRIMINAL PROFITS
Stolen medical records also yield tidy
criminal profits. Whether public service
or private practice, medical records are
sold for 150% more than other personal
data.
"Healthcare organisations also face
financial losses and penalties for
mishandling confidential patient records.
In 2016, the ICO fined Brighton & Sussex
NHS Trust £325,000 for the loss of highly
sensitive data including HIV positive
patients. More recently in 2017, the ICO
fined Lister Hospital, a facility owned
by private health company HCA
International, after patients' fertility
records were not secured. Unencrypted
audio recordings were sent to an Indian
transcription company. The files, which
had been stored on unsecured servers,
were exposed to unrestricted internet
searches." The worrying factor is that
these sorts of fines and events will only
increase with the implementation of
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