News reports tend to concentrate on the “big fish” that get snagged in the net of ransomware net, but smaller hospitals are aims for ransomware as well. Disruption to the continuity of facilities can be detrimental, no matter what the size of the agency is. The query is how big of an aim is your small hospital.
Small hospitals have various issues that are similar to those of their greater counterparts, but the infrastructure of a smaller hospital can pose extra issues. One of the most important barriers to an effective ransomware defense can be a deficiency of resources. More particularly, it is difficult for services in rural areas to recruit and retain required talent.
Moreover, it is also difficult for small services to have enough resources to make and manage a solid security program. In few little facilities, the security officer, the CIO and the COO are all the similar person—that increases the potential threat of security susceptibility, merely based on the fact that one person with diverse responsibilities lacks the time to cover all his or her several priorities. Business continuity is a high priority, but it might not get the attention it needs in a small agency.
There are ways for a small agency to decrease its vulnerability to IT security threats, like ransomware, without extra resources. Reducing threat without increasing costs can be accomplished by efficiently and effectively using present resources to strengthen the agency’s security defenses.
An agency’s powerful line of defense is the employee. Small hospitals need synergy for success in security prevention, because the whole is larger than the sum of its parts. As the old adage goes, an agency is merely as powerful as its weakest link; hence, addressing workers’ knowledge of significant security practices will strengthen the agency as a whole.
One action that can impact the whole agency is implementing a security awareness program against the ransomware, concentrating on education and communication, with the intent of stopping system users from performing dangerous actions, specifically clicking on risky web links contained in emails. Building a powerful security awareness program, can result in decreased risk of breach of confidential data, loss of continuity, as well as establish a more competently aware, and empowered worker.
This isn’t a short-term, one-time solution, and any such initiative should be tailored to the culture of the agency, keeping in mind the average rate of worker retention. A security awareness program not merely makes the worker aware, but empowers the worker, acting in a manner of teaching, advocating and influencing upon others the significance of security.
Empowered staff is more passionately engaged, and they mostly can find value in training that applies to how they conduct, and secure, their personal lives. Workers truly are the stakeholders promoting buy-in, ownership and accountability.
It is sometimes the small attempts that greatly decrease the risks to business continuity. One small attempt with the greatest gain is implementing an education and awareness program that involves the following components.
- Testing staff for recognizing and not falling prey to baseline risky actions.
- Recording baseline performance and setting improvement objectives.
- Executing a training response program that is tailored to the reactions of staff.
- Branding security continually through a program that involves staff through a monthly informative news article anonymously written by workers who have performed risky actions, thus promoting accountability and self-research/learning; transparently reporting quarterly to all staff on present metrics in relation to agencies goals; and consistent interaction through email, text and social media.
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