Best practices for mitigating evolving health care cyberattacks

Healthcare enterprises face growing and sophisticated cyberattacks due to factors like remote care, complex IT environments, and connected healthcare devices. These attacks target valuable patient data and can lead to operational disruptions, patient safety risks, financial losses, and damage to organizations' reputations. To combat these threats, organizations must adopt robust risk mitigation strategies:

1. Implement multi-factor authentication to ensure only authorized users access protected health information (PHI).
2. Use encryption to protect PHI in transit and at rest, guarding against unauthorized access.
3. Provide cybersecurity training to employees to enhance awareness and prevent human error, a common cause of breaches.
4. Vet solution providers to ensure their security and data practices meet organizational standards.
5. Adopt secure, compliant mobile messaging technology to facilitate communication while maintaining data privacy and security.

By proactively implementing these strategies, healthcare organizations can strengthen their cybersecurity posture and better protect patient data from evolving threats.