Page 36 - Delaware Medical Journal - November/December 2020

BE ON HIGH ALERT TO AVOID CYBER ATTACKS
In the first nine months of 2019, the number of assaults on health care organizations jumped 60%. U.S. health care companies are seeing the highest percentage of data breaches compared to other data-driven sectors like retail, financial services, and the federal government.
The health care sector is a magnet for attackers, who are drawn to the huge amount of protected health information (PHI) that is being utilized on a daily basis. Health care is tasked with keeping this
to effectiveness, patient care, and your reputation, all can harm the practice.
Sharon Ruth
With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the globe, opportunistic cyber criminals are leveraging our fear and need
for information to gain access to individuals’ computers and personal information through phishing and other spoofing schemes. Hospitals
and physician offices are battling
the coronavirus as well as a second front: cyber attacks. These major threats require risk mitigation, risk
management, and/or risk transfer strategies as the crisis continues to unfold.
Over the last decade, cyber attacks against health care agencies have skyrocketed. Data breaches impacting personal and health data of individuals have impacted roughly 70% of the population, at a rate of 1.4 a day per the HIPAA Journal.
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Del Med J | November/December 2020 | Vol. 92 | No. 6