industry snapshot
Information is crucial to the healthcare sector, as almost all healthcare-related services depend on sensitive data being transferred between devices on a large-scale network. It is this sensitive data that makes the healthcare sector one of the fastest-growing targets of cyberattacks over recent years, as patient data is frequently stolen or held for ransom.
The prevalence of cyberattacks against the healthcare industry is increasing in large part due to the exposure of the industry to threats in the cyber landscape through the inherent technical vulnerabilities of IoT devices. The healthcare industry is growing increasingly dependent on information infrastructures to manage their medical devices, patient records, and online consumer applications. This has the added effect of increasing the potential entry points for cybercriminals to strike.
Health service providers reported the most data breaches to the Australian Privacy Commissioner in the first half of 2020.
