Cyber Attacks Focus On Healthcare

Healthcare is now the most vulnerable industry to data breaches, with 328 breaches in 2017 alone (accounting for 60% percent of all breaches last year). The total estimated cost of these breaches reached $1.2 billion.

In 2017, we witnessed large-scale phishing attacks targeting health-care employees leading to the theft of patient data at both Morehead Memorial Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

In both attacks, phishing emails were used to obtain login credentials to staff members’ email accounts.

Later in the year, PII (personally identifiable information) of 18,470 patients at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit were exposed due to theft of credentials of a group of employees. The PII was protected using a single factor of authentication (a password) and encrypted at rest.

Through just these few examples, we can see that, despite the complexity of security technologies and investments like data encryption, and network and endpoint security, the most common and effective attack vector is still stolen user credentials. According to the 2017 Verizon Data Breach Report, 81% of data breaches are due to compromised or weak credentials.

Many of the organisations that understand this turn to two-factor authentication (2FA) to strengthen defense against stolen credentials. While simple 2FA helps raise an organisation’s security profile, many commonly deployed 2FA methods are insufficient to fully protect users and data and are easily circumvented.

On its own, 2FA will protect you some of the time but not all the time. Which is fine if you only want some of your organisation protected.

But it can be circumvented by attackers through:

  • Real-time phishing, which coerce a user into giving up their username, password, and one-time passcode by asking them to log into a phishing site or click a malicious link
  • SMS and voice call interception, where an attacker exploits the mobile carrier networks
  • Malware that uses malicious code to scrape SMS one-time passwords
  • Phone number porting fraud that uses social engineering methods to coerce a cellular company’s representative into issuing the attacker with a new SIM card or moving the victim’s phone number to a SIM card that the attacker already has
  • Out of band push-to-accept mechanisms, which essentially relies on bombarding an end-user to click ‘accept’ to make bothersome requests go away

Healthcare providers can strengthen authentication methods by adopting the following:

  1. Implement adaptive authentication and risk analysis, such as analysis of the user’s geographic location, device recognition, analysis of a user’s IP address, and applying machine learning to look for anomalous behavior of the user’s credentials. This provides the highest identity security without impacting user experience. Users are only burdened with an additional authentication step if risks are present. This validates authentic users, like doctors and nurses, while blocking attackers with compromised credentials.
  2. Phase out hard tokens to utilize self-service tools when possible while considering the total cost of ownership., Nurses, doctors and staff can access their data wherever they are through routine mechanisms by evolving to more modern authentication techniques that identify users through elements such as behavioral biometrics.
  3. Prioritise the most flexible solution with the most future potential instead of relying on a quick fix. Choose integration-friendly solutions that maximize existing security investments from a vendor who can be a partner in both security and EPCS & HIPAA compliance. Only then will you achieve an accurate holistic view of all security threats and save considerable effort in compliance audits.
  4. Provide the best possible user experience by building safeguards against human fallibility. By only requiring action when risk factors are high, teams balance security needs with user preferences. Utilize identity signifiers instead of passwords to empower physicians to access data and treat patients without having to call the help desk or initiate an online support ticket.

2FA is not strong enough to protect against even unsophisticated cyber-attacks. Clearly, busy healthcare workers need secure solutions that don’t inconvenience them as they tend to time-sensitive patient problems.

IT decision makers in the health services and patient care industry should strongly reassess their approach to authentication in order to keep their data and organisation out of the cybercrime spotlight.

InfoSecurity Magazine:   Image: Nick Youngson

You Might Also Read: 

Fixing Hacks Has A Deadly Impact On Hospitals:

NHS Trusts Failed Cyber Security Assessment:

 

« How AI Will Define New Industries
UK Launches Cyber Attack On Islamic State »

Infosecurity Europe
CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

Practice Labs

Practice Labs

Practice Labs is an IT competency hub, where live-lab environments give access to real equipment for hands-on practice of essential cybersecurity skills.

The PC Support Group

The PC Support Group

A partnership with The PC Support Group delivers improved productivity, reduced costs and protects your business through exceptional IT, telecoms and cybersecurity services.

IT Governance

IT Governance

IT Governance is a leading global provider of information security solutions. Download our free guide and find out how ISO 27001 can help protect your organisation's information.

Directory of Cyber Security Suppliers

Directory of Cyber Security Suppliers

Our Supplier Directory lists 7,000+ specialist cyber security service providers in 128 countries worldwide. IS YOUR ORGANISATION LISTED?

ZenGRC

ZenGRC

ZenGRC (formerly Reciprocity) is a leader in the GRC SaaS landscape, offering robust and intuitive products designed to make compliance straightforward and efficient.

The Josef Group (TJG)

The Josef Group (TJG)

The Josef Group Inc. is a certified woman-owned permanent staffing agency specializing in Information Technology, Engineering, and US Government "cleared" IT candidates.

Varonis

Varonis

Varonis provide a security software platform to let organizations track, visualize, analyze and protect their unstructured data.

Allegro Software

Allegro Software

Allegro provide secure software for the Internet of Things.

enSilo

enSilo

enSilo secures customers data on premise or in the cloud. Regardless of the where the threat comes from, enSilo can protect your data.

Gatewatcher

Gatewatcher

Gatewatcher is a digital breach detection platform targeting crafted attacks and protecting organizations against advanced cyber threats.

Cyberkov

Cyberkov

Cyberkov services include Pentesting, Vulnerability Assessments, Digital Forensics, Incident Response, Source Code Analysis and Security Training.

Cybellum

Cybellum

Cybellum brings the entire product security workflow into one dedicated platform, allowing device manufacturers to keep the connected products they build cyber-secure and cyber-compliant.

Cybersecurity Competence Center (C3)

Cybersecurity Competence Center (C3)

The Cybersecurity Competence Center was created to further strengthen the Luxembourg economy in the field of cybersecurity.

SensorHound

SensorHound

SensorHound’s mission is to improve the security and reliability of the Internet of Things (IoT).

GitGuardian

GitGuardian

Enable developers, ops, security and compliance professionals to enforce security policies across public and private code, and other data sources as well

Wolf Hill Group

Wolf Hill Group

Wolf Hill Group, a Slone Partners company, is a national recruitment firm focused on Cybersecurity.

Lexsynergy

Lexsynergy

Lexsynergy is a global domain name management and online brand protection company.

Magna5

Magna5

Magna5 is a managed IT service provider focusing in network and server monitoring, backup and disaster recovery, cybersecurity, help desk and SD-WAN.

MyKRIS Asia

MyKRIS Asia

MyKRIS specialise in providing and managing Internet network services and cyber security services to enterprises.

SecurityLoophole

SecurityLoophole

SecurityLoophole is an independent cyber security news platform with global coverage. Latest updates, reports, news and events related to cyber security.

Relyance AI

Relyance AI

Relyance AI - One unified platform for privacy, security, & governance.