Cybersecurity challenges in healthcare and how to mitigate risks
Overview
Healthcare’s attitude to cybersecurity has changed.
In June 2024, a major cyber-attack hit London hospitals. This caused a major impact on services, forcing trusts to:
Rearrange over 800 planned operations
Change 700 outpatient appointments
Divert 18 donated organs for use at other trusts
These numbers alone show why data security and cyber resilience are top priorities for many healthcare organisations.
Despite this, healthcare organisations have a long way to go to become genuinely cyber secure.
Increased attack surfaces and a reliance on legacy infrastructure are revealing growing vulnerabilities. New remote working practices mean security must be embedded into mobile devices.
We sat down with Vodafone specialists to get their expert opinion on the challenges providers face – and how they can overcome them with the right approach and a comprehensive mobility security platform like Samsung Knox.
Cyber threats are a huge cost to healthcare
The cybersecurity challenges facing healthcare providers
Bigger attack surfaces cause bigger problems
Today, many of the key cybersecurity issues healthcare organisations face involve dealing with larger attack surfaces. This is due to a growing remote workforce, new ways of delivering care, and the increasing use of technology as critical work tools.
“Since COVID, healthcare providers have been working together to bring care closer to home through the development of Integrated Care Systems” explains Emily Browne, Vodafone’s Pre-Sales Security Consultant. “However, as the health system becomes more complex, cybersecurity is needed to enable large amounts of data to flow safely and securely.”
“The attack surface has increased exponentially,” adds Emily. “Therefore, the potential for a data breach has also grown. Care providers need a secure and robust solution that allows staff to work efficiently in the community and in hospitals.”
Secure your solutions that are secure by design
Rapid digitalisation means that more services are online and patient records are being stored in the cloud. This is great for increased accessibility and convenience, but our experts feel it opens up new vulnerabilities.
“The increased use of mobile devices presents a greater chance for issues to occur due to human error or oversight”, Emily tells us. “In fact, since 2021, IT security incidents saw a 14% rise in accidental data leaks by employees, highlighting the crucial need for tighter user controls.”
She adds: “Crucially, security shouldn’t just be viewed as a bolt-on to protect front-end services. Business solutions throughout the organisation should be secure by design.”
What healthcare providers can do
Embed security into every layer of your organisation
With more mobile devices, endpoints and access points within a healthcare institution’s infrastructure than ever before, cybersecurity needs to be deeply integrated into the organisation.
Graeme Good, Head of Enterprise at Samsung Electronics UK points out that “The health sector, like so many others, continues to become increasingly mobile-centric. Therefore it is essential for healthcare organisations to secure the endpoint which is so often the weakest part of an organisation’s IT infrastructure.”
A solution like Samsung Knox – a comprehensive mobility security platform – is built directly into Samsung Galaxy mobile devices. For this reason, it is trusted by healthcare organisations around the world to keep digital healthcare safe.
“The advanced multi-layer security of Samsung Knox is embedded in both the hardware and software of an end user’s mobile device. Together with Vodafone’s secure and reliable network and connectivity, it means medical data and sensitive patient information can be protected” says Graeme.
Empower your organisation with a proactive approach to cybersecurity
Our experts agree that the best approach to cybersecurity in the healthcare sector is a proactive one – empowering organisations to tackle today’s challenges with conviction.
“At Vodafone Business, we believe in giving healthcare organisations the confidence to navigate today’s fast-moving threat landscape – and that means being proactive” says Emily.
“Working with proactive people can help you transform risk and security culture. Proactive processes can help you resolve security vulnerabilities while continuing to deliver care. And proactive technology services can monitor and manage your technology estate to safeguard your systems, operations, data and patients.”
Identify and use the right cybersecurity tools
It’s important to complement existing enterprise mobility management (EMM) systems with tools that optimise the management of large and expanding device fleets – but they have to be right. For this reason, Samsung Knox is referenced by the Vodafone specialists again:
Emily says: “Samsung Knox Suite – Enterprise Plan comprises solutions such as Knox Mobile Enrolment, Knox Service Plugin, Knox E-FOTA, Knox Asset Intelligence and Knox Remote Support. Each one can be used to address a specific requirement, but together they combine to deliver comprehensive protection.”
Emily adds: “Samsung Knox successfully identifies and assesses security risks; enables effective implementation of security measures; helps build an inventory of systems and data to maintain resource visibility; and provides incident management to provide support if the worst should happen.”
Get the basics right to set the stage for innovation
When it comes to dealing with evolving threats, Emily is quick to remind us that organisations must get the basics right first: “Foundational cybersecurity must be implemented before you think about investing in new technology. This means establishing multi-factor authentication and updating legacy equipment.”
“I’d also include things like updating and patching software” says Emily. “This covers antivirus software, endpoint detection and response systems – things that can easily get lost amongst everything already on healthcare providers’ plates. A simple yet robust strategy must be formulated before more innovation is added – and a platform like Samsung Knox E-FOTA can help with this.”
Interested in learning more? Find out how to overcome today’s cybersecurity challenges with Samsung Knox and our cybersecurity solutions.
“As the health sector becomes increasingly mobile-centric, Samsung Knox and its range of cloud services gives companies the confidence that they are secure and allows their IT teams to manage their devices in an efficient and cost-effective way.”
“Many people don’t understand the full value of cybersecurity. This works in cyber criminals’ favour. They’re pinning their hopes on people being too busy to focus or too uncertain to act.”
“As technology changes, so does the way organisations work. We're moving data from our own physical premises to the cloud, meaning that we need to have strong security across all aspects of the network, infrastructure, software and supplier services.”
Supporting healthcare organisations in their digital transformation
Explore a wealth of insights with our e-book, featuring in-depth customer case studies, innovative Vodafone solutions, and introductions to our best-in-class MedTech ecosystem.