Healthcare firms are facing more attacks than ever before

With technology evolving at lightning speed and healthcare companies often chronically understaffed, the industry is facing a cybersecurity crisis of sorts, a new report says.

SailPoint surveyed 150 IT and IT security decision makers from healthcare organizations around the world and found that nearly all (93%) had experienced an identity-related security breach in the past two years.

The findings add that healthcare companies are facing more attacks than ever before, most of which can be attributed to compromised identity attempts.

Many challenges ahead

To address the problem, companies should focus on AI-powered identity security, says the company that sells AI-powered identity security solutions. That said, SailPoint says healthcare companies are struggling to implement the technology due to the lack of flexibility in integration (43%) and lack of the skills needed to make the change (42%). About two in five struggled to comply with laws and regulations, while a third (30%) were unable to secure senior buy-in.

But by failing to implement the new technology, SailPoint says, companies risk operational downtime, compromised accounts and endpoints, lost revenue, stolen business data and reputational damage.

One of the more sickening examples was the attack on a Covid-19 hospital in the Czech Republic in May 2020, which prevented the facility from transferring information from key clinical systems to the database, and was deemed severe enough to disable IT systems and move acute patients to an alternative facility.

SailPoint is not alone in discussing the issue. A recent report from Check Point Research says that in 2022 alone, the number of cyber-attacks will increase by more than a third (38%) year on year.

One of the most targeted sectors has been healthcare, especially as businesses have had their hands full with the Covid-19 crisis. In fact, in the third quarter of 2022, healthcare suffered 60% more attacks compared to the same quarter in 2021, averaging about 1,400 attacks per organization per week, the same company found.