The heightened use of technology in healthcare is coupled with mounting cyberattacks. Recently, the healthcare industry experienced a global cyberattack when malicious software targeted the industry. The attack hit Britain’s National Health Service the hardest, affecting sixty-five of its hospitals. Cyberattackers stole healthcare information after using phishing emails to take control of the organizations’ computers, encrypting the computers’ information, and threatening to release the patient information contained on the systems if the organizations failed to satisfy payment demands.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Office for Civil Rights, over 100 million Americans’ health records were divulged in 2015. In early 2017, Experian predicted the health care industry would be the biggest target for an attack. Moreover, an Identity Theft Resource Center report revealed that more than 25% of all data breaches occurred in the healthcare industry, costing an estimated $5.6 billion each year.

Congress created the Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force through the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 to examine the healthcare industry’s vulnerabilities and create solutions to the cyber threats that place millions of patients’ information at risk each year. In light of the recent attack, the task force investigated the state of health information systems security in the U.S. and found a desperate need to increase health IT security.

In its report to Congress, the task force made a series of recommendations that suggested how to fend off the increasing threats. Among others, the recommendations include creating programs to cleanse healthcare organizations of vulnerable hardware and software and inserting more people with security skills into the healthcare field. The report emphasizes that failure to intervene could lead to catastrophic losses for organizations and patients.

The task force notes that the successful implementation of its recommendations will require significant time and resources, but it hopes the government will promptly respond to its report with efforts to improve cybersecurity in healthcare organizations.

The task force notes that the successful implementation of its recommendations will require significant time and resources, but it hopes the government will promptly respond to its report with efforts to improve cybersecurity in healthcare organizations.

 

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