Cyber attacks in the healthcare industry are becoming widespread as seen with diagnostic tools being infected by malware that forces the user to pay a ransom before shutting down the monitoring system. These viruses were sent to hospitals which could disrupt patient care by hijacking drug administration, stealing data about patients, or even shut down attempts to mine cryptocurrencies.
But this is a problem, given that healthcare facilities depend on a network connection just for in-house clinical support or to check the medical documents of a transferred patient. That’s why hospitals need cyber security software back up to counter threats from hackers and other cybercriminals. Case in point, the 2017 WannaCry incident ended up compromising thousands of computers in the United Kingdom, forcing doctors to communicate across hospitals for retrieving patient information and preventing 20,000 patients from making urgent appointments.
Cyber attacks will potentially cost companies billions in damages if they don’t implement an effective cyber security program into the mainframe of any treatment center. Therefore, the healthcare industry must ensure that patient safety is being prioritized so they can prepare for the potential loss of data.