Why Hackers are Targeting Medical Clinics for Data

The digital age has no doubt created benefits for the healthcare industry.  Processes are automated leading to boosted workplace efficiencies communication tools are more interconnected and patient data is stored online. However, the rapid evolvement of technology and adoption of mobile devices has led to healthcare security within medical practices to be exposed to malicious hackers.

The healthcare industry is an ideal target for data exploitation and security threats by hackers.  Why?

• Highly valuable data: Health records and patient data can be easily sold off to the black market, or even back to the hospital or medical practice itself.
• Hackers create profit: Hackers illegally generate massive profits from such transactions.
• Lack of I.T. investment: Medical practices are generally behind when it comes to introducing security measures. Many health facilities may not have the resources to bring in safety measures to ensure patient data is protected.
• Replicate identity: A patient’s identity can be imitated and used to retrieve medical prescriptions or any benefits.

Healthcare practices are severely lacking in security over their technology because of the lack of funding, resources, employee training on best information technology practices, and the overall lack of security assessment procedures.

What can your health practice do about this?

The medicine to stopping healthcare security threats, is to take action and put procedures in place to take back control over technology.  Medical professionals, practice managers and administrators within the healthcare industry, need to shift their outlook to see the value of implementing security over their data.  It’s typically perceived as too costly and only achievable within a large medical facility framework; however, the loss of valuable data will be even more costly to medical centres long term.

Protect, Prevent and Back Up

Educating employees is key, and many security fissures is the result of the unawareness or oversight of safety procedures. Making hospital data more secure is not only about the introduction of a single measure. A thorough approach is required to remove vulnerabilities to hackers and to reduce the risk of human error when using the software and sensitive information.

Who are you going to call?

Similar to other scenarios, prevention is always a better solution. We provide full technology solutions for healthcare practices in New Zealand. As experts in the medical I.T. field for over 25 years, Think I.T. provide full I.T. solutions that meet the requirements of the healthcare industry and the specific needs of the practice.

Think I.T. offer tailored services for healthcare centres, some include:

• Managed I.T. Services
• Risk assessments
• Cloud services
• Daily operation and communication tools
• Print solutions
• Data security design
• Hardware, networks and systems

Get in touch with us today to secure your medical site!