According to new research from the Ponemon Institute, healthcare organizations are the target of about one cyberattack per month. The researchers found that almost half of the 535 healthcare IT and IT security practitioners surveyed experienced a breach involving loss or exposure of patient information in the past year. The most common types of cyberattacks on healthcare organizations resulted from system failures, unsecured medical devices, identity theft and unsecured mobile devices.
Because of the critical and very private information that healthcare organizations keep on hand, a good disaster recovery plan is an absolute necessity. In fact, since 1996, HIPAA has required that healthcare organizations maintain a disaster recovery plan under threat of fines. The disaster recovery plans that HIPAA suggests only cover the bare minimum, however, and there’s much more that a healthcare organization needs to do to protect itself from cyberattacks.
One type of disaster recovery healthcare organizations have been turning to is cloud computing, or, more specifically, hybrid cloud computing. While cloud security has been shaky in the past, major cloud computing hosts have put guards in place to protect data. According to SearchHealthIT, since HIPAA compliance was extended in 2013, many cloud hosting companies and consultants now sell specifically to the healthcare industry.
Cloud storage has also come in handy with the move from paper to digital. In the past, when healthcare organizations experienced a cyberattack, they could move their paper records to a place referred to as a “hot site,” a physical off-site location where providers could continue IT operations. Now, cloud computing is replacing those physical hot sites. According to SearchHealthIT, healthcare organizations are also using cloud technologyfor everyday applications and patient care.
If you have a question about healthcare disaster recovery or cloud computing, contact us at info@mdltechnology.com or call 816-781-3006.
