Cyber Security to be prioritized by Indian Healthcare

Indian healthcare is working to prioritize cyber security and put in place a robust data privacy framework. This comes after tech majors like Cisco India, CrowdStrike, Cyware and Sophos India flagged the risks of cyber attacks to the sector with the ongoing pandemic of the last 18 months accelerating digital transformation including virtual healthcare, teleconsultations, telemedicine, wearable technology and email prescriptions.

The cyber security month observed annually from October 1-31 had this year’s theme as ‘Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart’.

Vishak Raman, director, security business, Cisco India and SAARC said, “#BeCyberSmart should be a priority for the healthcare industry, as the financial costs associated with the failure to protect confidential patient data can be severe. Most importantly, a healthcare organization that has been the victim of cybercrimes may lose trust amongst their patients and partners”.

“The last 18 months have brought unprecedented challenges and opportunities for the healthcare sector. The proliferation of medical and internet-connected devices brings both clinical benefits and security risks.  A hospital room is equipped with an average of 15-20 devices. The volume of critical data being transferred and stored every day calls for an integrated, unified, end-to-end security portfolio to help address privacy requirements, improve threat detection, and reduce management complexity. Security is critical at Cisco and so we build it into everything we make,” Raman further said.

With such huge data reserves including highly sensitive information and intellectual property, the healthcare is vulnerable to cyber attacks such as ransomware and targeted intrusions. There is need for a robust cyber security strategy to prevent, detect and respond immediately. This includes investing in threat hunting to transition into the next generation antivirus and running tabletop exercises to prepare teams in case of an attack. What we’re currently seeing is a surge in the use of a managed detection and response (MDR) approach in India which is s encouraging, said Nitin Varma, managing director, India and SAARC, CrowdStrike.

Akshat Jain, CTO & co-founder, Cyware noted that healthcare providers must start operationalizing threat intelligence to stay cognizant of threats lurking in their environment and take proactive mitigation actions through automated response systems before any adverse incident is experienced. Situational awareness combined with threat intelligence sharing are critical to ensuring digital security for the healthcare industry.

Cybercriminals are drawn to healthcare networks because of the widespread flaws that offer lucrative opportunities. Ransomware-as-a-service has become the norm in the cybercrime community this year. Due to lack of trained staff and poorly protected systems, attackers manage to find security gaps and will continue to exploit these weaknesses. Hence there is a need to deploy technologies like EDR (end-point detection and response) which enables fast incident response, and all staff are aware about the risks and responsibilities to safeguard data, said Sharma.

Reference: Pharmabiz