I N D U S T R Y I N V E S T I G A T I O N
or unauthorised access to these kinds of organisations fetch high prices on the black market . Furthermore , the healthcare sector has often not been particularly cyber-resilient . Their IT focus generally emphasises access and agility , an oversight which has resulted in many catastrophic security incidents in the past . Mobile devices provide agility and access but simultaneously are a particularly underestimated risk across all industries , despite being one of the most common business endpoints in the modern world .
Phishing Healthcare
Taken together , these factors add up to an attractive , potentially lucrative target for attackers . Currently , the sector is facing a particular problem when it comes to mobile phishing . Zimperium ’ s most recent Global Mobile Threat Report ( GMTR ) found phishing made up 39 % of the mobile threats arrayed against the sector . This is by far the most at-risk sector that is from mobile phishing . For comparison , the next most at-risk sector was higher education , for whom phishing makes up only 4.2 % of the mobile threat .
We can find similar findings elsewhere too . In 2021 , the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society ( HIMSS ) found that phishing was the most common attack facing healthcare organisations , accounting for around half of all attacks against the sector .
As the healthcare sector increasingly relies on mobile devices , that disproportionate share of phishing attacks will come through the mobile devices through which doctors , administrators and other healthcare professionals directly receive data and communications . These will expand from exploiting mobile inboxes to also leverage the unique functionality of the mobile device – such as SMS , instant messaging and QR codes – as well as the blind spots in how users interact with them .
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