We are currently living in unusual times with the associated challenges and security issues during the pandemic when the security of medical systems has been the most important factor in order to secure the work done in hospitals, clinics and vaccine research and manufacturing organisations. Medical systems have gone through a digitalisation revolution, like all the other systems, with all organisations relying a great deal on computer systems and many hospitals and medical systems have suffered cyberattacks in recent years.
The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK and the US pharmaceutical giant Merck were subjected to Wannacry attacks in 2017, for example. There have been numerous other attacks since then with the organisations listed below reporting such attacks. The Dusseldorf University Hospital suffered a cyberattack in September last year which resulted in the death of a patient. The Finnish private psychotherapy, Vastaamo, that was founded in 2008, recently suffered the biggest crime case in the history of Finland with 26 500 criminal reports filed with the police after a hacker stole the private therapy notes for patients at the clinic. The Vastaamo clinic subsequently went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago because of the attack. Watch the webinar on the topic of attackers getting more personal in their hacking attacks.
MEDICAL SYSTEMS UNDER ATTACK
NHS, Merck – Wannacry 2017
DCH Health System Alabama, USA 2019
South West Alliance of Rural Health, Australia 2019
The Rouen University Hospital – Charles Nicolle, France 2019
Brooklyn Hospital Center, New York, USA 2019
Hackensack Meridian Health New Jersey, USA, 2019
Michael Garron Hospital Toronto, Canada, 2019
Listowel Wingham Hospitals Alliance, Canada 2019
Pleasant Valley Hospital West Virginia, USA, 2020
Universitatsklinikum Dusseldorf, Germany 2020
United Health Service, USA 2020
Vastaamo Psychotherapy, Helsinki, Finland 2020
Cybersecurity trends in 2021
The Corona virus pandemic during 2020 has fundamentally changed the traditional work environment for nearly all organisations and enforced reliance on remote workforces. Taking employees out of the office is by no means a bad thing, however cyber-criminals are craftier than the average Joe Soap and will take advantage of the potential backdoors, lack of experience and secure infrastructure associated with work-from-home staff. The 2021 threat landscape is a potential sea of new vulnerabilities and hurdles to overcome as insider threats get redefined, the work-from-home trend continues, and mobile endpoints start becoming the attack vector of choice. Work-from-home staff also no longer have the privilege of being ignorant to cyber security practices and policies, and organisations’ IT departments are needing to get more involved in managing important communications concerning cyber security with all their users.
Hackers are also becoming more hands-on with their attacks which is not a good sign. Tried and tested security methods will always gain popularity which hackers take heed to. As the cyber-security industry is flooded with more tools to protect networks and users, hackers will turn to more sophisticated, hands-on methods to turn the tables. Moving away from solely targeting nation states or large-budget organisations, hackers are now aiming for targets who simply cannot afford the tools required to protect themselves against the advanced hacking techniques.
3.27 Billion reasons to regularly change your Password
The largest-ever compilation of stolen passwords and emails was recently posted online on a hacking forum that anyone could gain access to. The lists contain a staggering 3.27 billion entries, and the enormous database appears to be a compilation of leaked login credentials and other information from previous data leaks. The hacked passwords and emails are from leaks not only in the USA but from all over the world as the hackers managed to compile information stolen from different data breaches over the years and place it in one easily- accessible place.
Everyone who uses a computerised device, including smartphones, should expect that at some point in time their data was likely to have been exposed in a data breach. For years, cyber experts have also advised that password reuse is a big no-no and users should reset and increase their password complexity regularly. Unfortunately, human nature results in people tending to find the easiest option for their passwords which affects how and when they take heed of ‘inconvenient’ tasks like this. Now is the time though to make the necessary changes to such unsuitable habits that are likely to compromise the security of individuals, their families, friends and organisations that they work for and interact with.