Planning for cyber chaos: Healthcare’s resilience test

When a hospital, healthcare system or one of their critical third-party vendors is hit with a ransomware attack, all hell can break loose quickly. That often means ambulances must be diverted, patient appointments and procedures cancelled, business processes put on hold and other critical operations stymied.

That has been the case for hundreds of hospitals and other healthcare providers, as well as their critical vendors. In fact, Heywood Healthcare and its two small, Massachusetts-based community hospitals – are still recovering from ransomware attacks that disrupted operations two weeks ago. Other major attacks have originated at third-party suppliers like the one against UnitedHealth Group’s IT services unit, Change Healthcare, which last year disrupted thousands of providers for months.

Experts say resiliency in the face of cyberattacks is a critical part of the cyber maturity model in healthcare – ensuring that hospitals and other providers can continue delivering care and conducting business when confronted with a serious disruption.

Read more at Healthcare Info Security