Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals.

The Healthcare industry is experiencing cyberattacks more and more often with the widespread implementation of advanced medical and operational technologies such as electronic medical records (EMRs). Researchers cite a 60% increase in security incidents, 32% resulting in identity theft, and a whopping 282% increase in financial losses resulting from security incidents.  And according to security researchers. “A rise in cyber attacks against doctors and hospitals is costing the U.S. healthcare system $6 billion a year as organized criminals who once targeted retailers and financial firms increasingly go after medical records.”

Not to mention, with these new EMR technologies comes a greatly increased area of attack for hackers to retrieve not only vital financial information, but personal medical records that could be used to a hacker’s advantage. Even more concerning is the pattern of a change in threat actors from accidental compromises to more targeted hacktivists. The good news for the healthcare industry is that the IT leaders are taking these threats seriously –investment in information security rose 66% last year, and overall IT spending is up 53%. While it’s important to have enough budgeted to combat these challenges, it’s also important to note that even if organizations spend their entire IT budget on new security tools, if they fail to properly manage them, they will likely fail to prevent such security incidents.