ARPA-H (the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health), an agency under HHS, announced on May 20th the launch of a new cybersecurity effort aimed at helping IT teams secure and defend hospital and other healthcare networks. The program, Universal PatchinG and Remediation for Autonomous DEfense (or UPGRADE), is receiving over $50M in government funding to counter the increase in cyberattacks and ransomware targeting the healthcare industry.
In a significant digital security breach, Ascension Health fell victim to a cyberattack on its network systems this week. The US’ largest network of Catholic hospitals has suffered interruptions to daily operations and patient care as a result, with patients checking themselves out to seek healthcare elsewhere.
Weeks after Change Healthcare apparently paid the BlackCat ransomware gang a $22 million ransom to get back access to its encrypted data, another cybercriminal group called RansomHub claims to be trying to sell the 4TB of data. RansomHub’s April 16th message states that the data for “tens of insurance companies” contains Personal Identifiable Information (PII) such as addresses,
After the Change Healthcare cyberattack, you may be wondering, “How can I protect my small practice from a cybersecurity incident?” Unfortunately, a lot of providers and facilities fail to install proper cybersecurity software and infrastructure, or fall behind in maintaining it. Even more often, we hear practice owners say, “My healthcare practice is small,
In today’s digital era, healthcare practices face significant challenges in managing patient information, maintaining operational efficiency, and safeguarding sensitive data. This is where healthcare IT, distinct from regular IT companies, becomes indispensable. In this article, we will explore the importance of healthcare IT in practice management, focusing on its role in protecting information and facilitating day-to-day operations.
