Security breaches can happen to anyone, but they are especially harmful to those in the medical field. Hackers have targeted medical devices from hospitals and doctors’ offices with ransomware. In this blog post, we will be discussing seven ways you can protect your company from being hacked so they cannot lock down your devices.
Training on Cybersecurity Best Practices
The first way to protect your company from being hacked is through training employees on cybersecurity best practices. Everyone in the organization needs to be aware of how they can keep data safe and what steps should be taken if a security breach does occur. It is also important for everyone, including physicians, nurses, technicians, secretaries/administrative assistants, etc., to understand what malware protection is and how it can impact a medical device.
Training employees on cybersecurity best practices will ensure that they know the proper steps should a security breach occur.
Keep all medical devices away from public WiFi networks
Keep all medical devices away from public WiFi networks because hackers can use them to gain access if they are not configured correctly. If this happens, they could run a Man-in-the-Middle attack which allows them to intercept data transmitted by your device and decrypt it. Other attackers may try using wifi routers as an entry point into your network to exploit any vulnerabilities present on all of their connected devices. This means that anyone who is logged into one machine will be vulnerable once hackers are inside! Public WiFi networks should always be disabled across the company’s medical equipment since they open up doors for potential attacks like these.
Firewall & Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)
An intrusion detection system will detect suspicious activity and notify the IT department to take action before an attack occurs. This is especially important to protect your medical devices from being hacked because it does not allow malware to spread throughout the network, which could lead to a security breach or ransomware virus that locks down all of your company’s devices. A firewall protects data packets moving into and out of the internal networks but should be paired with IDS for them both to work effectively together.
Firewalls do not recognize bad traffic, while IDS systems are designed specifically for this purpose. If an IDS detects something malicious, then additional steps can be taken to protect the network.
Firewalls and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) will prevent suspicious activity on your company’s network so that you can catch any potential security breaches before they happen.
Security Updates & Backups
Companies of all sizes need to update their antivirus software, operating systems, and other types of security updates as soon as possible. This should be done regularly, but it becomes especially necessary after a major data breach or ransomware attack. Hackers may start targeting popular devices such as Windows XP, which Microsoft no longer supported with new patches and updates since 2014. Keeping backups in case of updating or patching devices has proved crucial throughout history when an organization has been hacked. By having a backup, they can revert to a previous software version when malware was not present.
Updating your company’s antivirus and other security updates ensures that you are protected from any potential threats in the future.
Regularly Backing Up Data
Backing up data is crucial for companies to be restored if there is ever an issue with updating or patching devices – this way, you have a copy of all of your most important information in case anything happens to cause a loss. Suppose ransomware infects one medical device on a network. In that case, every single device could potentially get locked down because their backups will also be encrypted. This means that if hackers successfully attack just one machine within the network, everyone else connected to it will be affected.
If hackers ever attack your company, data backups are crucial for restoring devices to a previous version to prevent further damage or security breaches from occurring.
Keeping Software Updated & Patched
Keeping software updated and patched along with regularly backing up all data can protect medical companies of any size against potential attacks that could cause serious issues like ransomware. Regular updates mean there are no known vulnerabilities present on the network, which leaves you protected when attackers start scanning for loopholes so they can exploit them before anyone knows what’s happening. This way, you have time to take action before an attack occurs instead of being caught off guard without knowing who even did it! If malware gets into your network, the ransomware virus could infect every device and encrypt their backups. If hackers successfully attack just one machine within a medical company’s network, everyone connected to it will be locked out well.
Ransomware attacks can shut down entire networks of any size but keeping regular data backups and software updated & patched is crucial for protection against them. If an attacker starts scanning for loopholes to exploit vulnerabilities before anyone knows what’s happening, you have time to take action instead of being caught off guard!
Disabling Flash on All Machines
Adobe may no longer support Flash since 2020, so companies should disable this feature across all devices immediately. This prevents attackers from using malicious code hidden inside websites and apps that can run into the system and render it useless.
Flash should be disabled immediately across all devices to prevent hackers from using malicious code hidden inside websites or apps – if an attacker successfully gains access, they could render your device’s software useless!
The medical industry is one of the most targeted industries for cyberattacks. Medical device security is often overlooked, but it can cause serious harm if hacked, so it’s important to protect them from hackers by implementing these seven cybersecurity best practices.
