Is Healthcare Facing A Silent Epidemic: The Rise Of Cyberattacks?

Is Healthcare Facing A Silent Epidemic: The Rise Of Cyberattacks?

Durga Chavali1, Vinod Kumar Dhiman2, Siri Chandana Katari3

1Manager, IT Application, Trinity Health, Trinity Information Services, Livonia, USA

2Vice President, Information Technology, Deenabandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science & Technology, Sonepat, India

3Student, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (IoT), Vasireddy Venkatadri Institute of Technology, Nambur, India

Address for Correspondence: Durga Chavali, durgayc@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Undesirable consequences, such as the potential harm due to enhanced reliance on electronic platforms, should not be underestimated regardless of the healthcare industry's spectacular growth and the repeatedly applied digital transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare organizations, storing endless documents with very sensitive patient data, have their allure increased among cyber-crooks. The article underlines the fact that hackers find these deficiencies quite appealing, particularly when looking at the slow and unwilling pace of technology adoption and revamping of old systems. Stringent data protection regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are catalyzing, cyber-badey organizations into pursuing healthcare systems as their targets for cyber-crime. Healthcare organizations are weakened by the absence of standardized practices for cybersecurity, adoption issues for interoperability, and deficiency in staff training. The article puts the weight on prevention actions as network patching, employee training, and advanced cyber threat detection technologies are vital to protect patient information and provide the high-security standards that correspond the evolving and sophisticated threats.

KEYWORDS: Electronic platforms, Healthcare industry, Data protection regulations, Cyber-crime, COVID-19 pandemic.