In these trying times of COVID-19, hospitals and other health delivery organizations are being driven to furlough staff and tighten their belts. What does this mean for hospital cybersecurity programs? 

The impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare industry has perhaps been even more dramatic than in the transportation and tourism industry, with airlines and hotels going bankrupt all over the world. These industries have suffered a massive downturn in their revenue and all have had to quickly pivot to the new reality of conducting business during a global pandemic. But unlike travel and tourism, healthcare has been in the forefront of a treating those infected with the new Coronavirus and dealing with the monumental feat of disease control, all the while trying to minimize on-site risks.

As a result, the delivery model for healthcare has drastically changed from one of principally elective procedures and screenings to a model where 90% of business, outside of ICU services for COVID-19 patients, is now conducted remotely via telehealth. In fact, healthcare is widely considered to have undergone the greatest single digital transformation of all time and all within the space of a few weeks.

The Unprecedented Times of Change

Cyber-criminals know this too and have been improving their craft with fervor. Since early March, a proliferation of spear phishing campaigns targeting often overworked healthcare staff, many of whom are now working alone from home, has plagued the industry.

Unfortunately, these are far from the only challenges facing the industry and those whose job it is to secure the systems so vital to the delivery of healthcare services. Hear from four leaders in the healthcare security and technology space as they discuss the issues facing the sector and offer options for effective action:

Healthcare Security Panel at the San Diego MSSF

The panel includes:

• Richard Staynings, Chief Security Strategist at Cylera
  
• Christian AbouJaoude, CTO at USC Keck School of Medicine.
  
• Esmond Kane, CISO at Steward Health
• Brett Cattell, Director of Systems at Robin Healthcare

Read more about the effects of COVID-19 in Healthcare:

Targeted cyber attacks on Healthcare Increase During COVID Crisis 

On the Front Lines of a Pandemic

Ransomeware: The Need for Better Security Amid the Pandemic 

View our Resource page for more COVID related blogs.