D I G I T A L D I A G N O S T I C S
Dominic Trott , UK Head of Strategy at Orange Cyberdefense
Another reason healthcare is particularly targeted is due to the sheer size of the industry . For example , the NHS employs 1.2 million people , making it a large employer in Europe and one of the largest in the world .
This is important because human error is one of the leading causes of cyberattacks and therefore a significant risk that must be mitigated . People are invaluable to the success of any healthcare organisation , but many employees simply aren ’ t aware of the security risk they unwittingly pose . The breadth of threats IT and security teams need to protect against is vast , ranging from connected medical devices in hospitals , nurses visiting outpatients in rural areas and reporting back their findings , to the huge number of freelance or zero hours administrative staff that work across the business .
Finally , while some healthcare technology is miles ahead of its time – think of the advent of robot-assisted surgery – there are still many areas in which the industry is behind the curve . Legacy technology is rife within the sector , sometimes due to budgetary pressure , but often due to the critical nature of those legacy systems . When we consider that some activities are so critical that organisations are reluctant to invoke the downtime required to implement patches , it is no surprise that organisations are hesitant to upgrade or replace legacy systems . This makes the job of maintaining a good security posture extremely difficult . You just
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