Roughly 78% of the healthcare organizations in North America, South America, the APAC region, and Europe experienced a cyberattack over the past year, according to a new report from industrial and IoT security firm Claroty.
Polling responses from 1,100 cybersecurity, IT, engineering, and networks professionals working full time at healthcare organizations, the report reveals that the attacks impacted IT systems, sensitive information, medical devices, and management systems at the affected organizations.
“While IT systems were impacted in 42% of incidents, respondents report other critical information and assets were also impacted, specifically protected health information (PHI) data (30%), medical devices (30%), and BMS devices (27%),” the survey (PDF) reads.
Of the respondents whose organization experienced a cyberattack, 60% said care delivery was affected to some extent, while another 15% reported severe impact on patient health and/or safety.
The survey shows that most healthcare organizations (78%) have implemented a clear medical device security leadership, most often under IT security, and more than half of them have increased their security budgets.
The cybersecurity programs implemented within the surveyed organizations cover sensitive data (including health information), IT systems and endpoints, medical devices, building management systems, and other internet-connected assets.
When asked about the financial costs associated with the experienced incidents, 43% of the respondents placed them in the $100,000 to $1 million range, while 24% said the costs were between $1 million and $10 million.
Roughly 26% of the respondents admitted that their organization paid a ransom, which added to the total costs associated with the attack. Operational downtime, fines, legal fees, insurance premiums, and reputational damage were also factors adding to the financial costs.
More than 60% of the respondents said they were concerned of cyberattacks targeting their organizations, with ransomware, internal threats, supply chain attacks, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks raising the most concerns.
Most organizations, the survey shows, still need to improve their strategies and solutions around cybersecurity and vulnerability management.
Overall, “38% of organizations are at or below basic levels of network segmentation, creating potential exposure to risk”, the survey shows.
While organizations say they continue to invest in improving their security processes, many say the lack of budget is a gap that needs to be filled.
More than 70% of organizations are looking to hire in cybersecurity roles, but 80% say it is difficult for them to find qualified candidates.
“The healthcare industry has a lot working against it on the cybersecurity front—a rapidly expanding attack surface, outdated legacy technology, budget constraints and a global cyber talent shortage. Our research shows that healthcare organizations need the full support of the cyber industry and regulatory bodies in order to defend medical devices from mounting threats and protect patient safety,” Claroty CEO Yaniv Vardi said.
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