By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    An Expert’s Guide To Building and Improving Endurance
    June 30, 2022
    medical assistants
    What Do Medical Assistants Do On a Day to Day Basis?
    April 5, 2022
    superfoods to help with prostate health
    10 Healthy Foods That Can Help Protect Your Prostate
    August 29, 2022
    Latest News
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
    Why Custom Telemedicine Apps Outperform Off‑the‑Shelf Solutions
    July 20, 2025
    How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
    July 17, 2025
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    healthcare cost crisis
    What If the Health Care Cost Crisis Solves Itself?
    May 11, 2013
    Do You Need Life Insurance? What Does It Cover?
    December 23, 2022
    HIE metal plans
    The Four “Metal Plans” of Health Insurance Exchanges
    May 28, 2013
    Latest News
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
    How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
    July 17, 2025
    How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
    July 17, 2025
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Cybersecurity in Healthcare: What’s Working?
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > eHealth > Medical Records > Cybersecurity in Healthcare: What’s Working?
Medical RecordsPolicy & LawTechnology

Cybersecurity in Healthcare: What’s Working?

Meghan Sheerin
Meghan Sheerin
Share
5 Min Read
SHARE

A cynic might argue that cybersecurity in healthcare, like the overall healthcare system itself, is in critical condition. The growing number of internet-enabled medical diagnostic devices, the expansion of electronic medical records, and the prevalence of networked scheduling and billing systems, and inadequate employee training and sensitivity to cybersecurity issues has overwhelmed the healthcare environment. Healthcare employees are often forced to do more with less in order to keep up with technological improvements. As they scramble to do their jobs, employees pay less attention to cybersecurity issues. A recent data breach experienced by the University of California Davis Health system is a typical example of the healthcare cybersecurity problem. In May 2015, UC Davis officials discovered than an employee had responded to a phishing email, giving hackers access to his login credentials that the hackers then used to compromise the records of more than 15,000 patients. This event cannot be dismissed either as an outlier or as a problem caused by a careless employee because similar attacks have already plagued healthcare systems for several years. Because of the regulatory obligations they face under HIPAA, and in the face of competitive pressures from other healthcare providers, hospitals and medical centers are beginning to pay greater attention to cybersecurity matters. Their first order of business has been to improve efforts to attract and retain cybersecurity talent in the healthcare field. General industry trends predict significant shortages of cybersecurity employees over the next five years. Recognizing this, the healthcare industry will need to improve salaries for medical cybersecurity specialists in order to remain competitive and to retain talent that will be lured to other industry sectors that promise greater salaries and career opportunities. Higher salaries might create short-term budgetary issues for healthcare systems, but allocating more budgetary resources to cybersecurity personnel will be justified in view of the higher costs associated with recovering from a data breach. Developing a more robust healthcare cybersecurity workforce is one of six imperatives recommended by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The other five imperatives include streamlining cybersecurity leadership, defining better expectations for secure systems and devices, improving overall device security, increasing employee education, and identifying common risk exposures through better sharing of data and data breach experiences throughout the industry. Manufacturers in the medical internet of things (IoT) industry are already stepping up their efforts to comply with the imperative to improve medical device security. The core of those efforts includes development of cybersecurity standards that all medical IoT device manufacturers will build into their products for matters such as encryption, data storage, user authentication, software and firmware updates, and management of patches and bug fixes for identified security risks. These efforts are doing more than just keeping the patient alive and healthy, but ultimately their limitation is the same that is faced by all modern medicine. That is, just as medicine can treat and cure the patient but it cannot eliminate all incidents of disease, medical cybersecurity initiatives can insulate medical technology systems from hacking but it can never eliminate all cyber threats. Because the cyber threat risk will always be present, healthcare cybersecurity insurance is the final backstop to all medical cybersecurity efforts. Cybersecurity insurance will offer protection to a medical center, for example, where despite all education efforts, a careless or tired employee clicks on an email phishing link that opens the center?s network to a hacker?s prying eyes. That protection includes financial resources to help a center recover lost data and to restore damaged software and equipment. It can also cover liabilities to patients whose data was lost or stolen during a cyberattack, and fines levied by regulatory authorities for HIPAA and other violations. In view of this, healthcare cybersecurity insurance is one of the most effective strategies that does work in the healthcare industry.

TAGGED:cybersecurityhealthcare data
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

technology in medical research
The Tools Helping Medical Researchers See the Full Picture
News Technology
August 3, 2025
5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
Health
July 31, 2025
holistic dental
Holistic Dentist Services Are Natural and Safe
Dental health Specialties
July 28, 2025
botox certification
Help Improve People’s Skin Health Via Botox Certification
Skin Specialties
July 22, 2025

You Might also Like

frequent ER users
eHealthHealth ReformHospital AdministrationPolicy & LawPublic Health

Myth: Frequent ER Users Don’t Use Primary Care

March 20, 2014

Doctors and Their Patients: Commitments to Caring

January 12, 2015
healthcare IT
Health ReformPolicy & LawPublic Health

Telemedicine’s Achilles’ Heel: The Telephone

May 16, 2013

Obesity Drugs Changing the Treatment Landscape

February 29, 2012
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?