The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996 and sets forth a comprehensive set of standards for protecting sensitive patient health information. The Privacy Rule applies to all entities that fall within the definition of a “covered entity“, which generally includes healthcare providers, health plans, and clearinghouses.
In April 2022, a medical billing company based in New York became the victim of a serious ransomware attack. Bad actors stole personal and financial data of patients from 26 healthcare institutions who were the company’s clients. The billing company had to notify almost 1 million individuals that their data had been stolen. Over the last few years, organizations and fintechs that process payments for healthcare providers have become a hot target for cyber attacks.
On September 12, the FBI released a private industry notification entitled “Unpatched and Outdated Medical Devices Provide Cyber Attack Opportunities.” The notification underscores how a growing number of vulnerabilities in medical devices and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) assets can be exploited by threat actors to “impact healthcare facilities’ operational functions, patient safety, data confidentiality and data integrity.”
The healthcare industry is transforming patient care through software, from 24/7 digital patient portals, to AI-fueled medical research, and everything in between. As innovation reaches new heights, how does healthcare stack up against other sectors in terms of software security flaws and the ability to remediate them?
Millions of dollars have been stolen from healthcare companies after fraudsters gained access to customer accounts and redirected payments. In a newly-published advisory directed at the healthcare payment industry, the FBI warns that cybercriminals are using a cocktail of publicly-available Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and social engineering techniques to impersonate victims and obtain access to files, healthcare portals, payment information, and websites.
As a direct result of COVID-19 burnout, the ongoing Great Resignation trend might be impacting healthcare more than any other industry. Research shows that healthcare has already lost an estimated 20% of its workforce over the past two years. This turnover is happening top-to-bottom throughout organizations. Doctors are switching between hospitals, administrative staff are leaving the industry, and technology teams are being lured away by higher paying jobs in other sectors.
