Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic arguably compressed years of digital transformation for the entire healthcare industry. Rapid deployment of new and existing technologies, including telemedicine, has enabled practices and hospitals alike to stay productive – but not without an increase in cyberattacks on the
industry.
Most of the technology adopted during this period of rapid evolution focused on solving the challenge of keeping employees and patients connected regardless of their location. Telemedicine, for example, enabled existing patients and doctors to connect. It also expanded healthcare accessibility to those who may have a disability that prohibited them from getting to the doctor.
This has made telehealth the norm for both patients and doctors – so much that 37% of patients in one survey said they intend to continue using telemedicine services after normalcy returns.
In addition to connecting patients and providers, healthcare organizations also had to keep their staff productive from anywhere. This meant expanding access to sensitive compliance-related data that’s stored in collaborative cloud or private apps from any personal, managed, or unmanaged device. Platforms such as Google Workspace became widely used, which helped enable productivity but also increased risk.
Over the course of 2020, nearly 1 in 10 healthcare workers encountered a malicious mobile app on their device. Taking it a step further, 1 in 4 workers with Google Workspace on their device encountered a mobile phishing link.
Due to the rapid digital transformation, it has undergone, the healthcare industry is facing a fundamentally new threat landscape. Providers need to understand the challenges ahead, the problems they will face and most importantly how to solve these issues. Modernizing traditional models of user, device, network, and data control with the right security platform is necessary if a provider wants to keep ahead of the next ransomware or advanced persistent threat campaign.
