Mobile and cloud usage is at an all-time high and hospitals and healthcare organizations have to become more vigilant and focused on their data security. There is a high price tag on illegally obtained healthcare data, both for the losing provider and for the gaining cyber-criminal on the Dark Web black market.
According to the Ponemon Institute in 2015, health data can value for as much as $373 per record, which is more than credit card data in criminal networks. The unique challenges to healthcare include multiple practitioners accessing records from various locations, ie: caregivers, patients, and businesses are all sharing HIPAA data. There are also many different devices, and the more devices, the more vulnerability.
How can healthcare win the battle and create data vaults that no hacker can penetrate? Endpoint security.
Endpoint Management
Vulnerabilities are inherent in healthcare operating systems due to so many different medical devices and servers frequently running outdated software. To protect against the latest versions of malware, everything must be regularly updated and patched accordingly.
With a modern endpoint security system, the healthcare organization’s IT team or partners can easily monitor patches in real-time. If something is running without the most up-to-date patch then the team will be alerted. Combine this with automated patch and software updates, and healthcare providers can have a consistent approach to IT security.
Network Visibility
If any device connects to a healthcare organization’s network and is unmonitored, it serves as a lilypad for hackers to jump to more critical devices and servers. The unmonitored device could also become a honeypot of malware and infiltration. With endpoint security, healthcare organizations can effectively monitor all devices, even on the cloud, while simultaneously enforcing access perimeters to keep unauthorized devices off the network.
Ransomware Protection
Ever since the unprecedented NotPetya and WannaCry cybersecurity crisis hit the healthcare industry, the ongoing battle against ransomware has only grown in recent years. Ransomware is especially destructive with its ability to empower hackers to ruin a brand identity, cause costly downtime, and exploit the vulnerability to an onslaught by other hackers.
Good endpoint security includes up-to-date threat detection to prevent and discover the latest ransomware. Also, by utilizing sandboxing technology and port control, a threat is unable to cause damage even if it has breached the network.
BYOD and Medical Device Protection
Given the increasing prevalence of smartphones and laptops accessing sensitive data utilized by various staff, it is essential to have endpoint security that takes internal and external collaboration into consideration.
It will most likely take more than standard antivirus detection to protect all of the medical devices in a hospital’s arsenal. Devices such as MRI or EKG machines require a special set of protections. A robust and multi-layered endpoint security strategy that includes special wi-fi protections for medical devices is the healthcare industry’s best bet at keeping their systems healthy and safe from a potentially devastating data breach.
Considering all of the risks associated with healthcare network security, the importance of including endpoint security into the larger security framework is obvious. From internal to the cloud and all of the devices in between, security sensors need to be in place and working together to detect and thwart data threats in real-time. Contact the healthcare IT security experts at Emerge IT for an in-depth security vulnerability assessment.