Children's Hospitals Today - Winter 2023 - 14

FEATURE / CYBERSECURITY
More than financial risks
The stakes have never been higher for companies to protect
their technology systems and the data their customers trust
them to keep safe. According to the most recent " Cost of a
Data Breach Report, " compiled by IBM Security and Ponemon
Institute, the average cost of a data breach reached $4.35 million
in 2022-an all-time high.
The price tag is much higher in health care. For the 12th consecutive
year, health care topped the study's list of analyzed
industries, with its average data breach running more than
$10 million-up nearly 10% from just a year ago.
And the potential damage cuts much deeper than just dollars
and cents. Compromised patient data can cause irreparable
harm to a hospital's reputation and erode trust among the
families it serves. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and
ransomware attacks can disrupt services, potentially leading
to disastrous outcomes. A 2019 ransomware attack at a community
hospital in Alabama hospital may have contributed to
a baby being born with severe brain damage and dying a few
months later. The infant's mother alleges in a lawsuit against
the hospital that the cyberattack caused her child's death.
" I talk to my team a lot about the real impact in the work we
do in keeping information safe and keeping systems up and
operational, " says Angela Johnson, chief information security
officer at Children's Wisconsin in Milwaukee. " That's one of the
reasons I am very meticulous about what we're doing and how
we're doing, making sure we're protecting each and every one
of our patients, so they have the best possible outcomes. "
Prime targets
Exacerbating the challenge facing children's hospitals is the
inclination of cybercriminals to target health care organizations.
A recent study conducted by cybersecurity firm Sophos
revealed that two-thirds of health care organizations surveyed
faced a ransomware attack in 2021-nearly double the number
of those attacks from the year before. But why?
Opportunism. Cyberattacks against hospitals have risen
exponentially since the onset of COVID-19, as bad actors
seek to take advantage of stressed staffers and health care
resources stretched thin by the pandemic response.
Valuable data. Protected health information (PHI) is much
more robust than financial account or credit card data, typically
containing more personally identifiable details. It's more
permanent, making a breach harder to detect and resolve
compared to cancelling a credit card if it is breached. And
there are many ways for hackers to use that data on the dark
web, including purchasing prescriptions, receiving treatment
or making fake medical claims.
Ransom collection. Because a hospital's technology is integral
to its operations-and patients' lives could hang in the
balance-they are more likely to pay ransom to recover their
data. More than 60% of health care organizations reported
paying ransom in 2021, compared to the overall average of
46%, according to the Sophos study.
While the threat of cyberattacks is high, there are steps children's
hospitals can take to help safeguard networks and patient
information. Here are five ways to create safer systems.
A CLOSER LOOK
The award goes to ...
Here are the standouts of data breach causes, according to IBM's " Cost of a data breach 2022 " report.
MOST FREQUENT
MOST COSTLY
MOST TIME TO IDENTIFY
MOST GROWTH
COMPROMISED CREDENTIALS
19%
of all data breaches
14
PHISHING
$4.91m
average cost
CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Winter 2023
COMPROMISED CREDENTIALS
327
average days
RANSOMWARE
41%
growth of breaches in 2021

Children's Hospitals Today - Winter 2023

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