The healthcare sector has become a popular target for cybercriminals and is one of the most targeted industries by cybercriminals. In 2022, 324 attacks were reported in the first half of the year. As bad actors continue to target the healthcare industry, cybersecurity experts and healthcare administrators should be aware that attacks are frequently impacting smaller companies. These numbers point to unusual trends occurring in the healthcare industry.
Healthcare Breaches in Decline?
It might seem shocking, but trends collected from the first half of 2022 reveal that overall healthcare data breaches are in decline. However, a closer inspection of recent data reveals that despite variations in the number of attacks per year, the actual volume of records continues to fluctuate as hackers shift their targets. Healthcare companies make significant targets for cybercriminals because they are a trove of valuable information.
One-way hackers have reoriented their attacks is by targeting electronic medical records systems. Today, many healthcare systems rely on the same EMR companies. When a single EMR company is targeted, multiple hospitals or healthcare systems can have their data exposed. In the first half of 2022, twenty individual hacking incidents were reported. By comparison, there were only 5 in 2021, 4 in 2020, and 1 in 2019.
For example, consider the following table illustrating trends in healthcare data breaches:
Since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, a sharp increase can be seen in the number of reported healthcare data breaches. Additionally, since Q3/Q4 2020, the total breaches have trended downwards. Despite this apparent downward trend, Q3/Q4 of 2019 saw far more data breaches than any subsequent half-year. What this indicates is that when evaluating the cybersecurity threats in the healthcare industry, professionals should not just focus on the overall number of breaches, because this may not reflect the actual depth or breadth of the attacks that are occurring.
Who Is Being Chosen?
Some of these third-party-based attacks have already materialized in years past. In 2022, multiple attacks involving electronic medical records services occurred. When split into smaller segments, specialty clinics are a top source of data breaches (31%).
Medical services and supplies (made up of pharmacies, medical supply companies, and provider alliances) account for 14% of breaches in the first half of 2022. Another area of concern is business associate breaches. Business associate breaches are other entities linked in the healthcare supply chain. This includes record providers, consultants, billing companies, cloud services, web hosting services, and medical device manufacturers. In the first half of 2022, 15% of data breaches were attributable to these medical supply chain associates.
How Did Data Breaches Occur?
The overwhelming majority of breaches were caused by either an intentional criminal act, or an IT incident. In the healthcare industry, when patient records are improperly accessed or disposed of incorrectly, this can constitute a data breach. However, these types of data breaches don’t expose patient data to dark web markets where data is traded like a commodity. When considered in total, malicious activity accounts for 97% of the breaches that actually harm individuals.