Cybersecurity Attacks Can Disrupt Healthcare Delivery, Impacting Patient Safety

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Virtually all organizations today are subject to cybersecurity incidents that can disrupt operations. In the healthcare environment, such incidents additionally pose a real risk of physical harm, and thus must be recognized as a threat to patient safety, not just to business operations.

Network-connected medical devices and data systems are integral to how patients are diagnosed, treated, and kept safe within healthcare environments. A cybersecurity incident, or even the process required to remediate or respond to a security vulnerability, could render these systems unavailable. For example, a successful ransomware attack could encrypt patient data on a critical clinical system, disable user access, or otherwise compromise system operation. This in turn can disrupt operations...