Three-quarters of healthcare industry infected with malware
A recent report from SecurityScorecard revealed that malware infected 77 percent of the healthcare industry in the last year.
SecurityScorecard’s [link url=”http://info.securityscorecard.com/2016-healthcare-cybersecurity-report” title=”2016 Healthcare Industry Cybersecurity Research Report”] analyzed the state of cybersecurity in the healthcare industry. Since August 1st 2015, malware infections hit more than three-fourths of all organizations in the industry.
This hefty percentage placed healthcare ninth of all industries studied.
More than 77 percent of the entire healthcare industry has been infected with malware since August 2015! https://t.co/O5GGvMUNxi pic.twitter.com/PSyDhS7CAV
— SecurityScorecard (@security_score) November 2, 2016
Medical treatment centers struggle the most
Medical treatment centers had the most problems when it came to malware. Treatment centers accounted for more than 95 percent of all malware in the industry. Additionally, the healthcare manufacturing sector struggle more than most, as well. This sector had an 88 percent infection rate.
Part of the reason treatment centers have a high rate of malware is because they house a large number of IoT devices!https://t.co/8wQhsABDh6 pic.twitter.com/5eORRLm9kJ
— SecurityScorecard (@security_score) November 4, 2016
The IoT to blame
Internet of Things (IoT) technology — various Internet-connected devices and gadgets — is likely to blame for the large amount of malware infecting the industry.
IoT devices are often vulnerable to common attack methods due to inherent insecurity. Recently, cyber experts [link url=”https://amuedge.com/iot-blame-massive-ddos-attack/” title=”blamed to IoT”] for the massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that swept over a large part of the U.S. in October.
According to SecurityScorecard, a large portion of infections came directly from IoT insecurity. However, the reported noted that IoT security can be immediately increased when connected devices no longer have their default security settings in place.