D I G I T A L D I A G N O S T I C S
Cyberattacks among UK healthcare facilities are only increasing , with many systems being outdated and lacking proper security . Here , Dirk Schrader , VP of Security Research at Netwrix , speaks to us about how organisations in this space can utilise the cloud , protecting themselves against criminals .
Cyberattacks against the UK ’ s public infrastructure are an ongoing problem , with healthcare cited as the eighth most targeted sector by cybercriminals , according to reports . In August 2022 , the NHS confirmed that hackers had stolen data from its digital systems via a ransomware attack . This attack led to major disruptions across multiple NHS services including emergency prescription services and the 111 nonemergency advice line . Most notably , the Adastra patient management system was also affected – a non-emergency ambulance dispatch service which helps doctors to access patient records and carries the private medical information of nearly 40 million UK patients .
Without effective change , further incidents are likely to reoccur . Therefore , leaders within the sector should be increasingly concerned about – and looking to mitigate – account compromises and other forms of cyberattacks targeting their networks .
Recent trends in the cloud security landscape
According to findings from a recent Netwrix Cloud Data Security Report , 73 % of healthcare organisations and medical facilities store their sensitive data within the cloud . The most common type of data stored by these organisations is patient or protected health information ( 45 %). Moreover , healthcare organisations plan to increase the share of their workload in the cloud from 38 % to 54 % by the end of 2023 .
Regarding cyberattack trends , the report found that 61 % of healthcare and medical facilities suffered at least one cyberattack against their cloud infrastructure within the last year – a rate that is expected to increase overtime . Yet only 14 % of healthcare respondents that had experienced a cyberattack claimed it had no impact on their organisation . The rest faced additional expenses , like ones to cover security gaps or compliance fines .
The most common cyberattacks healthcare facilities faced against their cloud infrastructures were phishing , ransomware and account compromises . The last type of attack seemed to be one of the most challenging to detect , as 20 % of organisations needed days and 7 % needed weeks to spot this malicious activity .
As the initial vector of an attack , hackers typically use two main approaches . The first is by stealing an employee ’ s weak login credentials , such as a username and password , to access their target ’ s cloud infrastructure . The
HOW THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR CAN MITIGATE CLOUD SECURITY THREATS
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