Why telemedicine is vulnerable to cyberattacks: 3 things for hospitals to know

Telemedicine systems are high value targets for cyberattacks because they host a treasure trove of patients' protected health information.

They're also easy targets because they integrate with many networks and technologies and often have no unified security policy or central governance, according to the an April report from the Healthcare & Public Health Sector Coordinating Councils. Most telemedicine communications also happen outside of controllable environments such as patients' personal devices.

Here are the three major types of attacks against telehealth systems, according to the report.

1. Compromise of confidentiality, which includes theft of personal identifying information, data exfiltration and credential harvesting.

2. Compromise of integrity, including exploiting financial transaction systems and manipulation of clinical data.

3. Compromise of availability, which includes ransomware and denial of service.

Click here to view the full report.

 

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