Compared to four other key industries, the healthcare sector appears to be slightly behind in cyber defense maturity, according to a survey published by ForeScout Technologies and conducted by IDG Connect.
The report surveyed 1,600 IT information security decision makers in retail, education, manufacturing, financial and healthcare organizations from the U.S., the United Kingdom and the DACH region (Austria, Germany and Switzerland) between April and May 2014.
Here are five key findings on the cybersecurity standings of healthcare as compared to the other sectors.
1. Across the three geographic regions, the healthcare industry is the least affected by phishing and targeted attacks, which was reported to be the most common type of security incident.
2. However, the healthcare industry is reportedly more prone to data leakage and unsanctioned device use issues, with 60 percent of healthcare organizations reporting these security breaches compared to 56 percent of organizations across all industries.
3. While nearly half of all organizations — 49 percent — indicated problem prevention is more challenging today than it was two years ago, fewer in the healthcare industry — 42 percent — reported feeling the same way.
4. Nearly one-third of the U.S. healthcare industry organizations reported high levels of confidence that security tools to combat perimeter threats would be improved.
5. The healthcare industry was more likely to report higher than average compliance policy violations.
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