Coronavirus Crisis Adds Data Breach Dangers for Healthcare Sector

In a time of immense strain on personnel and resources brought on by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, healthcare organizations don’t need additional stressors. But that’s not stopping cybercriminals from taking advantage of the upheaval to infiltrate healthcare systems and steal data. The desirability of data from different industries waxes and wanes based on many factors like scarcity, usability, relevance and quality. 2020 was very much the year that everyone wanted healthcare data, with myriad breaches in every stop on the healthcare supply chain from hospitals to research institutions to trucking companies moving COVID-19 vaccines to market.  

As expected, the healthcare industry was firmly in the sights of threat actors in 2020, reporting more data breaches than any other industry. The healthcare sector has been at the top of the most targeted industry list since at least 2017 and it was the undisputed champion of data breaches in 2020. So far in the first 6 months of 2021, 238 healthcare data breaches were reported with finance & insurance the next most attacked sector with 194 reported incidents, followed by information with 180 data breaches. 

How Can Healthcare Targets Stay Safe from Cybercrime?

By using responsive cybersecurity tools that work together to create a strong defense, healthcare organizations can stay one step ahead of cybercriminals even in uncertain times.  

• Dark Web ID – Don’t let cybercriminals sneak into your network to snatch your data with a compromised credential. Gain powerful protection from the hazards of dark web credential exposure with 24/7/365 human and machine-powered monitoring of business and personal credentials, including domains, IP addresses and email addresses that gets to work immediately and alerts you to trouble fast, before the bad guys have a chance to strike,
• Passly – Secure identity and access management with multifactor authentication is a must-have to take the power out of a filched password. Multifactor authentication alone adds an extra layer of protection between hackers and your valuable data, stopping 99% of password-based cybercrime.  Passly seamlessly integrates with over 1,000 common business applications for no-fuss configuration. Get quick and easy access to SSO applications and passwords with the ability to automatically fill in the blanks for web logins and automated password resets to make everyone’s life a little bit better.
• BullPhish ID – Protecting a business from cybercrime starts with protecting it from phishing. An estimated 65% of cybercriminals use phishing as their primary method of attack. The new BullPhish ID helps businesses increase their phishing resistance. By enabling trainers to either choose a premade phishing simulation kit in 8 languages or create their own materials that capture an industry’s unique threats, you can be certain that staffers are being trained to recognize and deal with the phishing threats that they face every day. But they’ll learn about much more than just phishing including compliance, password safety, security hygiene and more, giving every employee a solid grounding in cybersecurity pitfalls and best practices.