Beefing Up Healthtech Cybersecurity

In today’s always-on digital world, cybersecurity is a chief concern for most industries. With the rise of so many internet-connected devices, there are exponentially more attack vectors through which hackers can target organizations than ever before. We have seen this most notably in the financial services industry, where firms are 300 times more likely to be attacked than those in other industries.

And a chief concern in all of this is the relationship between firms and third-party vendors who supply technology. If a cyber attack is made through a system provided by a vendor partner, who is ultimately responsible?

It seems the healthcare industry is grappling with these same issues. After decades of being entirely paper-based, the healthcare sector in recent times has embraced digital records and interconnected medical devices — which in turn has seen the industry grow as a target of cyberattacks, according to Moody’s.

This has led healthcare organizations to request information about the software that is running these devices that third-party manufacturers have long considered proprietary. The requests have generated tensions between the sides, the WSJ reports.  As we see internet-connected devices become more a part of healthcare, this issue will likely continue.