There is some debate
over whether or not the CHS, Anthem and Premera data breaches were the result
of
"sophisticated" attacks. The jury is still out, but cautious
journalists are using quotation marks to indicate that this explanation is not
universally accepted. Regardless of the sophistication of these attacks,
attacks they certainly are, and healthcare organizations should be prepared for
the onslaught to continue, because healthcare data breaches are so
lucrative.
They have to assume they are being targeted by criminal hackers for fun and profit.
Maybe former Intel CEO
Andrew S. Grove's
book
title got it right: only the paranoid survive. Perhaps healthcare organizations
could learn from their corporate antitheses, the tobacco companies, who have
many enemies, but are protected by a culture of hardened security.
There is certainly
room for
technological
solutions to help manage risk, but we must recognize that the most frequent
cause of data breaches is human behavior. (According to a Verizon data breach
report,
about 76% of network intrusions involve weak credentials -- bad passwords.) The
biggest risk to the security of your data is your people. No amount of
monitoring using sophisticating technology can protect your data from bad
decisions by people on your network.
Let's not forget the
subtitle of Grove's book: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every
Company and Career. The threat to data is also an opportunity to establish a culture
of data governance. In such a culture, the value of data is recognized, and
human behavior is shaped by this recognition.
Human behavior is a critical
factor, because social engineering is how malware and other created vulnerabilities
find their way into your network. It is essential that your systems have malware
protection, but it is equally important that your people know what not to click.
A strong governance, risk
management and compliance (GRC) culture fights social engineering with social engineering.
If healthcare organizations
can learn to fend off the cyber attackers, they will be in a better position to
fend off the lawyers bearing
class
action law suits.
