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Like the entire world during the pandemic, cyber attackers turned their eyes to the health sector. It is noted that security vulnerabilities in the sector, which experienced the most data breaches, which increased by 12% compared to the previous year, are also life-threatening.

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İSTANBUL (TR) - The healthcare sector is one of the areas that uses technology most and where operations are most digitalized. With the coronavirus pandemic, the digital transformation has accelerated and the sector has been at the center of cyber attacks for the last year. According to data shared by IBM, cyber attacks against healthcare organizations, hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturers and other medical companies, especially those serving within the scope of coronavirus research and treatment, doubled in 2020. These attacks caused damage of approximately $7.13 million per case, up 10% from the previous year. The sector ranked first among all sectors with an increase of 12% in data breach rate compared to 2019.

Making an assessment on the subject, Hakan Hintoğlu, General Manager of the local cyber security company Berqnet Firewall, said, “The contents of medical products such as drugs, vaccines and patient information are extremely attractive targets for cyber attacks. Therefore, it is necessary to consider cyber security as a strategic priority in terms of patient safety and corporate risk. Solid backup of critical data and periodic vulnerability scanning of all electronic systems are among the main measures to be taken.”

Health sector allocates 7% of IT budget to cyber security

Touching on the reasons for targeting the health sector, Hakan Hintoğlu said, “In the first place comes to host a lot of information with high monetary and intelligence value. The target of the cyber attack can include patients' health information, financial information such as credit card and bank account numbers, personal information such as identification numbers, and intellectual property information regarding medical research and innovations. Another reason is that the damage that can be done to a healthcare institution as a result of a cyber attack is too great, and therefore the demand for ransom that can be requested increases. One of the reasons why health institutions are targeted by cyber attacks is that there are still serious cyber security weaknesses in this sector. As a matter of fact, current studies show that the health sector lags behind other sectors in terms of cyber security measures and only 7% of the budget allocated for information technologies is used for cyber security.”

Cybersecurity is now also related to life safety

Hakan Hintoğlu drew attention to the fact that the cyber security vulnerability brings a life-threatening danger: “In September 2020, there was a cyber attack that caused loss of life at the Düsseldorf University Hospital in Germany. Data on 10 servers in the hospital's network was encrypted as a result of a cyber attack and a ransom was requested. During this period in which data could not be accessed and systems were not working properly, a patient who came to the hospital was forced to be transferred to another hospital and died due to the loss of time. This sad example proves the relationship between cyber security and life safety in our rapidly digitalizing world.”

Every company that processes special quality data should take precautions

Sharing the points that all experts and institutions that process special quality data in the field of health such as pharmacies, doctors, dentists, dieticians, hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, optical centers and spas should pay attention within the scope of data security, Hintoğlu said, “First of all, raising awareness of employees and cyber security is very important to increase literacy. Access authorizations to data should be carefully determined and constantly controlled. Firewall and antivirus products must be used. Operating systems and security software used should be kept up to date, and unlicensed, pirated or “crack” software should be avoided. At this point, as Berqnet, we also support all institutions that process special quality data. With the firewall devices we have developed, we enable organizations to provide data security in an integrated manner. The use of the firewall is very critical, especially at the point of ensuring data security, which is a very important technical measure for GDPR. In other words, we can say that the entrance gate of GDPR is cyber security.”