by
Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | February 01, 2017
Five steps toward security
Faced with this rising cybercrime tide, there are five steps health care institutions can take to beef up defenses, as Ron Temske, vice president of security solutions, Logicalis U.S., an international IT solutions provider, shared in an
HCB News September, 2016, report.
- Get current on protection software
Focus on modern, next-generation anti-malware and firewall solutions that can stop the attack before it starts.
- Make handling attacks automatic
If you try to manually defeat threats, you will lose. That's because today’s threats are automated – and too fast to stop by hand.
- Compartmentalize your system
Use network micro-segmentation strategies, because once malware breaks into your network, it will spread fast. So make it hard for it to penetrate and spread laterally by making different parts of the network compartmentalized.
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- Plan ahead
Create the defense plan assuming you WILL be attacked. Make sure you back up as if preparing for Armageddon. And test your backups regularly, to make sure they can actually restore your system. And be careful to ensure you have an uncorrupted source for an immediate restore on hand at all times.
- Decide if you are willing to pay, and how much
At the highest levels, you must decide what it's worth to limit the damage and if you are willing to pay off criminals – or not. This is something to determine well in advance, according to Temske. “Take the emotion and adrenaline out of the equation. Plus, we have found that in most cases you can negotiate your ransom. [Some] have been able to reduce the ransom by a decent amount, but don’t miss an imposed deadline.”
The number of attacks, including those involving ransomware, continued to rise in 2016,
according to a survey among 30 mid-sized hospitals conducted by cybersecurity firm, HITRUST. It found that fully half the facilities had been forced to deal with a ransomware attack.
One major reason – health data is extremely valuable to thieves. HITRUST estimated that the current value of a single patient record on the black market is extremely valuable – estimated to be worth around $20 to $60.
One such attack happened in December, 2016, when
Quest Diagnostics was hacked. “An unauthorized party accessed the MyQuest by Care360 internet application and obtained Protected Health Information (PHI) of approximately 34,000 individuals,” the company reported.
