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New risk to cybersecurity in healthcare: Hacker as a service

This article is part of the Pulse issue of March 2018, Vol. 6, No. 2
Probably going back to the time of Sherlock Holmes, crime fighters have known an unfortunate truth: Just when it seems that they have the bad guys under control, the rogues develop a new wrinkle that messes up the plans. That axiom arose for me when pondering the current state of cybersecurity in healthcare. Since 2016 -- when cyberattacks against hospitals started to increase alarmingly -- health IT professionals have worked hard to counteract hacker breaches, malware attacks, employee errors and other intrusions into electronic patient data systems. IT folks have updated or implemented new security measures, applied software patches and boosted staff training when necessary. Then a curve ball was thrown when one of SearchHealthIT's contributors, Nicole Lewis, interviewed analyst Lynne Dunbrack for a feature story in this issue of Pulse on cybersecurity in healthcare. Lewis learned that veteran hackers are giving back to their underground community. In a weird twist on the "blah-blah as a service" model that's popular across ...
Features in this issue
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Connected medical device security, AI battle health hackers
More hacker threats, including via connected medical devices, are coming to healthcare organizations, but health IT professionals can look to AI and blockchain for possible help.
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Healthcare breaches drop, but ransomware attacks rise
Patient data breaches dropped in 2017, mainly due to fewer large-scale breaches, but ransomware strikes intensified and insiders kept hacking.
Columns in this issue
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New risk to cybersecurity in healthcare: Hacker as a service
Health IT and hospital security professionals must try to stay ahead of cyberattacks against electronic patient records. But now hackers are prepping the next generation.
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Healthcare ransomware attacks threaten patient safety
Worry about health IT cybersecurity has shifted from hacker-triggered health data breaches to ransomware and malware exploits that shut down hospitals and threaten patient safety.