Cyber Security Update: Flexible Plans Provide Best Protection
Cyberattacks impact every facet of society, from banking and retail to health care and every computer user. Hackers and other cyber criminals have found myriad ways to breach databases and networks as a means to acquire illicit gains from victims through ransomware or through the sale of personal data on the dark web.
“Criminal terrorists, foreign adversaries constantly prowling this digital domain represent a threat to this nation. And America’s digital infrastructure is under constant cyberattack,” said Vice President Mike Pence, while speaking at the recent National Cybersecurity Summit in New York City.
“The federal government alone experiences hundreds of thousands of digital assaults every day. And across the entire country, the number of attacks on our digital infrastructure is impossible to calculate. Our digital foes are targeting every facet of our society,” Pence said.
The level of threat that online criminals and hackers pose is a national and international concern. It has been found in breaches of information in the federal government, breaches of a major credit bureau and incursions into retailer networks and healthcare systems.
“There are two main cybersecurity dangers in health care today. The first is an attacker’s ability to gain access (and control) a medical device in the hospital environment. The risk here is primarily that this leads directly to a demand for ransom. This is a significant vulnerability because many devices are not secure and present a significant threat to health care institutions,” says George Gray who is the CTO and vice president of research and development for Ivenix Inc.
He says that the second danger is around gaining access to protected health information (ePHI).
“Attackers can use this patient information to steal a user’s identity or attack them financially. This threat is primarily a concern for EMR systems. But as device vendors, we need to do our part by not being that doorway onto the hospital network,” Gray says
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