Cyberattackers are exploiting inherent weaknesses in healthcare data security, making the sector the most targeted industry in the first quarter of 2018, according to an article on the Health IT Security website.
The Rapid7 quarterly threat report released May 15. found that the leading attack vectors in healthcare were remote access, such as suspicious logins, access attempts from disabled accounts, and account leaks, as well as phishing and ransomware.
Healthcare organizations are popular targets because they often have a complex, distributed IT infrastructure with legacy systems and proprietary medical devices, making them difficult to secure quickly, the article said.
Plus, healthcare facilities rely on system availability to keep life-saving operations running. Cyberattackers have frequently exploited this situation with ransomware or denial of service attacks.
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