Hackers Increasingly Target Health-Care Providers

The number of providers victimized by hacking attacks rose by 320 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to “Breach Report 2016: Protected Health Information,” a study from consulting firm CynergisTek. 
What’s more, 81 percent of records breached in 2016 were the result of hacking attacks. 
CynergisTek’s seventh annual study provides an analysis of the causes of PHI breaches reported to the Department of Health and Human Services and the overall state of cybersecurity in healthcare.
“Healthcare providers have become the primary targets of malicious hackers, and their attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and disruptive to operations,” CynergisTek vice president Dan Berger said. “The dramatic increase in hacking attacks in 2016, coupled with the large number of patient records compromised in those incidents, points to a pressing need for providers to take a much more proactive and comprehensive approach to protecting their information assets in 2017 and beyond.”
Read more at Healthcare IT News >>