John Tanner is a consultant with Freed Associates, a California-based health care management consulting firm. He wrote the following article on the threat of cyberattacks in health care and the ways organizations can be better prepared and more resilient.
Living in California, we are well-aware of natural threats like earthquakes which can potentially wreak havoc on a health care organization. California hospitals are spending billions to ensure they can remain operational after a major earthquake and meet the 2030 seismic mandate passed after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Today, health care organizations are faced with another growing threat – cyberattacks – which can be equally disastrous to the ill-prepared.
Like earthquakes, cyberattacks can happen any time and the damage can range from minimal to several millions of dollars, depending on the nature of the attack and the vulnerability of the involved organization. Yet unlike their expenditures against earthquakes, many health care organizations spend just 1-2% of their annual IT budget on cybersecurity — or safeguarding their computer networks and data from penetration and…
