Washington is reeling from the reports of a hack at MedStar, one of the greatest medical contributors in the area. A computer virus infecting the agency's computer systems forced MedStar to shut down much of its online operations on the day of Monday.
The real nature of the attack is not yet known, but MedStar is merely the latest victim in a string of cyberattacks that have hit the health-care industry hard. Here is what you require to know about how health-care contributors became the latest digital battleground.
Why would cybercriminals go after the health-care industry?
The health-care sector has a lot of data that could be precious to criminals and that makes them a juicy target.
First, they mostly have a bunch of personal data that could be utilize for traditional financial fraud -- things like your name, social security number, and payment data. But they also have health insurance data, which can be sold for even more on online black markets because it can be utilized to commit medical fraud -- things like obtaining free medical care or buying expensive medical equipment -- that often is not caught quite as rapidly as credit card or bank account fraud.
A specifically plucky cybercriminal could even find a way to leverage compromising medical data guarded by health-care contributors into a blackmail scheme -- although that has not become a major avenue for attack yet, in accordance to Ben Johnson, co-founder and chief security strategist at cybersecurity Carbon Black.
“Health care is a bit distinctive in that up-time is really significant," claimed Johnson, which means contributors may be more likely than other targets to pay quickly so they can get back to work.
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