Data dangers for hospitals

Cyber crime that bombards healthcare organizations can put people’s lives at risk.  This is a known fact, and if anyone doesn’t know it, incidents like that at the Hospital Centre of Versailles, in Paris, should serve to further demonstrate.  Consisting of several different hospitals, the complex was forced to cancel operations after a cyber attack from hackers.  As of last weekend, three patients had to be transferred from the intensive care unit and another three from neonatal care.  

Visiting the hospitals, Health Minister Francois Braun assessed that machines in the ICU had been compromised and were no longer working as part of a network.  Operations in other French hospitals have also been disrupted in recent months, and Braun says attacks against healthcare are a daily occurrence in the country.

Even just a partial list of hospitals impacted by cyber attacks around the globe would be of exhaustive length.  The Versailles complex experienced a serious issue, and when it comes to critical patient care, keeping medical records safe isn’t the sole consideration.  Considering the complexities involved, the last thing medical institutions want to worry about is the possibility that their data might not be in safe hands.

With so many data protection issues and regulations confronting IT divisions, Dark Reading suggests it is more prudent to focus on minimizing data loss risk, rather than trying to prevent every bad actor from getting past the perimeter.  This is a common enough line of thought, and it reflects on the constantly fluctuating set of methods that cyber criminals use.  Rather than try to anticipate and counter every single move they make, which is impossible, a far more fruitful strategy is to prepare for how best to minimize the damage in the event they get in. 

Data encryption, for instance, provides a solid last line of defense, ensuring the ultimate futility for hackers trying to steal and exploit it for their own gain.  This is especially vital for smaller-to-mid size organizations that perhaps lack the resources for dedicated IT teams or complex, expensive data security technology.  To this end, NetLib Security’s Encryptionizer stands as a reliable and efficient option, primed to encrypt stored data right out of the box with no additional programming required.  Encryptionizer can minimize the risks posed by a data breach and remove one more headache for organizations.