Cyber Crimes on the Rise in the Healthcare Domain – How to Put a Control?

The planet that we live in today is literally camouflaged with the benedictions of technology. Being the most powerful ‘entity’ of this era, technology has introduced the humankind to sky-rocketing possibilities. Today, we are witnessing the possibilities and ventures that were even unimaginable a few years ago. But in contrary, the fact is that the advancing technology has also unintentionally invited dangers that have turned out to be a major concern for the world. Several sectors have been the victim of Cyber Crime and one of the most vulnerable ones is the Healthcare domain. Sharp-practices have become a concept of household in the medical industry leading countless precious lives to the lion’s den. Healthcare sector is being constantly attacked by cybercriminals for quite a number of years now and the percentage of the attacks are increasing each year by a substantial percentage.

Why is the Healthcare industry a superior target of cyber-crime?

The foremost target of cybercriminals are the health-care records of patients since these records hold personal details like credit card data, email addresses, social security numbers, medical history records, and even employment information. Cybercriminals target big and healthcare records help to suffice their demands. Other than that, Ransomware is one of the most significant threats currently. Cybercriminals widely utilize the same to make money off of the healthcare organization itself. Ransomware attacks are becoming more and more common as the time is rolling.

Moreover, since the employees working in healthcare industries have complete access to patient details, information, and several types of drugs, it emerges as one of the weakest points where the biggest threat to the healthcare domain mainly lies. The healthcare industry possesses one of the lowest overall rates of data encryption which acts as its feeble point when compared to other industries. When the people within the organization turn out to be a part of the cyber-crime practice, it's nothing but doom on the dusk.

Various categories of cyber-crime affecting the healthcare industry

Cyber attackers use a wide range of high-end and complex technologies nowadays to be more pro in their job. Cyber-crime is all about using the right technologies combined with incomparable intelligence. Unfortunately, the tactics of cyber attackers are getting stronger day by day with no end to it. Explained below are some of the significant types of cyber threats made in the medical domain in the past few years that still continue to accelerate:

• CEO Fraud – The CEO fraud type of cyber threat includes a cybercriminal mimicking a member of the organisation’s executive team and utilizing a spoofed email account in order to initiate a wire transfer to the account of the attacker.
• Account Compromise – This particular version of sharp practice involves a fraudster hacking into a real employee’s email account
• Attorney Impersonation – In this specific process, cyber attackers generally get in touch with the employees who are within the target organisation and claim to be a legal entity with time-sensitive and confidential affairs that require an urgent transfer of money to another account. This account remains in full control of the cyber attacker.
• Data Theft – Data theft is one of the most common and widespread cyber-attacks that is not letting the healthcare domain respire in peace. Cybercriminals reach out to administrators with full access to personal employee details. They later utilize this particular intelligence as a jackpot to hack crucial information further.

Creating a shield against cybercrime is no rocket science 

Cybercrime is emerging as a universal challenge that is getting robust with the advancement of time and technology. Starting from data theft to stealing intellectual property, it nearly encompasses all. The attacks on the medical sector are now exploiting the beliefs and more importantly, the lives of patients who are entirely unaware of such occurrences. Cyber attackers might take sheer advantage of technology but a small reminder would be that technology was again created by the human mind. As such, a multidimensional effort from medical industry workers, top-heads and even patients can reduce the percentage of theft to a large extent. Let’s have a brief discussion about it.

Identifying the threat symbols can be accomplished by knowing the patent approaches that cyber attackers follow. Attackers generally use persuasive tones when it comes to funding transfer. Terms like extremely urgent, due payment, urgent payment, etc. are some of the common reasons to at least validate before calling anything into action as a part of the organisation. This was just one example but there are several other signs that help to tell when being dealt with an attacker. Training healthcare employees on cybersecurity basics can also act as potent weapons against cyber fraud.

Apart from that, conducting regular backups, increase the use of encryption, installing strong web security, opting for offline data storage, and not entertaining drug purchase without an authentic prescription (applicable for medicine buyers) are some of the simple yet effective ways to cease the practice of cyber attackers on healthcare organisations to some extent. Giant healthcare organisations can also hire information security professionals to ensure that their cybersecurity infrastructure is in place. Healthcare organizations can very well take care of the cyber-crime by simply adopting proper steps at various levels. All that is needed is cooperation and support from all those involved, even the patients.