International. Cyberattacks on the health sector have been constant and have been increasing since the pandemic, probably due to the valuable information stored there. This is one of the most attacked sectors in Latin America, with irreparable consequences such as the death of patients.
According to Akamai, as a result of the pandemic, cyberattacks on the health sector have not ceased, but on the contrary have been increasing, already ranking among the main sectors attacked in Latin America.
“An attack on a hospital, for example, brings with it serious and unfortunate consequences, ranging from the death of patients to causing delays in surgeries or patient care, as well as causing damage to medical equipment and even causing shortages. of medicines”.
The brand confirms that ransomware-focused criminal organizations previously avoided targets where human life was in danger, but today, hospitals are targeted, ignoring the risk to humans.
“In Latin America there have been various cyberattacks, some of them publicized, such as the computer attack on public platforms in Costa Rica that caused convulsions in the expanded network of hospitals and clinics. Another of the most notorious cases was the cyber attack on the website of the National Institute for Food and Drug Surveillance (Invima) in Colombia, which caused the non-availability of information and applications external to the institute”.
Oswaldo Palacios, senior account executive for Akamai, reported that the greatest cyber risk that the health sector is facing is not only the theft, kidnapping or loss of data as such, but the alteration in the operation of the system as the main objective. "A patient should not arrive at a hospital where the X-ray equipment or some other device that is connected to the computer network does not work because they have been hacked."
It is important to note that at the end of January, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) succeeded in dismantling the Ransomware Hive group that has attacked more than 1,500 victims in more than 80 countries around the world, including hospitals, schools, financial companies and critical infrastructures.
A hospital attacked by the Hive Ransomware had to resort to analog methods to treat existing patients and was unable to accept new patients immediately after the attack.
In the same way, the Akamai expert stressed that if a health center tells the patient that they cannot access their data or their results, the patient will go to another medical institution. This situation has an impact on finances, on the workflow, on scheduled processes, and in general on the regular operation of the institute.
On the other hand, Oswaldo Palacios specified that, for example, an ultrasound or X-ray equipment that sends the results to a central server must have strict security protocols for those who access said information.
“There is a lot of highly valuable data from hospitals, health institutions, laboratories, etc., susceptible to being stolen and sold. Something that these institutions are not doing is having a preventive surface so that they know how to protect themselves. We understand that due to the nature of the operation, the institutions are focused on health and prevention issues; but along with their digital transformation, they must undertake a cybersecurity strategy that allows them to anticipate and avoid the risks of cyberattacks”, highlighted Oswaldo Palacios.
In this sense, the manager listed eight preventive actions that the health sector must carry out to counter cybercrime attacks.
1. Proper network profiles. The computer network should be considered as a whole. Health professionals must have the appropriate profiles to access the information network.
2. Incorporate multi-factor authentication (MFA). Use multiple technologies to authenticate a user's identity. It is designed to be more secure than a simple login.
3. Visibility. You can't protect what you can't see. It is advisable to have visibility software to see how critical assets are being transmitted, such as a virtual file.
4. Enforcement. Once it is known how critical assets communicate, the healthcare sector can do something called enforcement, that is, make decisions based on the traffic they are seeing. Once this is done, a safe environment can be created.
5. Proactive security. A threat cannot be solved with just an antivirus. A proactive security practice attempts to locate and fix vulnerabilities in the organization before they are exploited by cybercriminals.
6. Advanced Cyber Diagnostic Assessments. Carry out evaluations of cyberattacks by email, network
