Healthcare organisations around the world are making cybersecurity a top priority as threat levels, including ransomware and theft of patient data, continue to rise.
New findings from consulting firm HIMSS Media research in the US indicate that CIOs and CISOs in healthcare have plans to fight back with the implementation of biometrics (29%), digital forensics (28%) and penetration testing (28%) over the next two years. Nearly half said they are challenged with coming up with funding to help them execute on fighting security challenges.
The pandemic has seen a sharp rise in attacks by cybercriminals looking to exploit overstretched healthcare resources. The CyberPeace Institute has analysed over 235 such cyberattacks across 33 countries and found that over 10 million records were stolen during those attacks, including social security numbers, patient medical records, financial data, HIV test results and private details of organ donors.
Security aside, there are indications that healthcare managers see IT innovation as increasingly important. HIMSS Media research has been conducting research into the IT spending priorities of healthcare CIOs over the past few months, and found that in addition to cybersecurity many are planning to spend on AI and machine learning, interoperability, telehealth, connected health and remote patient monitoring, electronic health records and population health.
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