Cyberattacks worldwide are increasing at an alarming rate. According to cybersecurity company Check Point, the third quarter of 2022 saw a mean of beyond 1,130 global weekly attacks per business.

Certain sectors, however, are more prone to data breaches. The healthcare industry fell victim to the highest average data breach cost in 2022, reaching more than $10 million per attack. As such, leaders in the healthcare industry need to learn how to safely adapt to the inevitable total digitization of medical data. This will help to prevent future cyberattacks, thereby protecting patient information and safeguarding physicians from inadvertently being party to HIPAA violations.

Physicians can protect patient data by instituting certain cybersecurity strategies, like zero trust security. Zero trust fortifies defense against cyberattacks and reduces the level of potential harm caused by ransomware attacks. This, in turn, lowers the time and cost of managing a breach. A zero trust approach requires that every user be known and verified, making it one of the most potent methods of cloud security.

About 40 Million Health Records Are Annually Exposed to Cyberthreats

Another strategy helpful in safeguarding patient data is perpetually evaluating agreements. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, around 40 million individual patient health records are annually exposed to cyberthreats. Given that multiple third parties play a part in maintaining a profitable healthcare business, third-party risk management is a crucial element in quality cybersecurity. Physicians should always thoroughly vet new vendors, as well as commit to ongoing monitoring of the third party’s activities. If a third party is considered high risk, healthcare businesses should have a contingency plan in place.

Physicians can also work to keep patient data safe by integrating endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution tools. EDR solutions offer healthcare businesses ongoing suspicious-behavior evaluation of endpoints, protecting systems from multi-vector attacks via policy-based detection rules and User Entity Behavioral Analysis (UEBA).

Employing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), EDR analyzes data and pinpoints cyberthreat patterns. If a threat is detected, EDR solution tools will contain it and inform whoever is in charge. Given that around 82% of all data breaches are due to some form of human error, such as engaging a phishing scam or mishandling sensitive files, security measures like EDR solutions play an essential role in combating cyberattacks, significantly helping to minimize risk and handling cyberattacks if they do occur.