Only Half of Healthcare Professionals Report Their IT Infrastructure Is Safe from Cyber Attacks
According to the Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA) most recent MGMA Stat poll, only 55 percent of healthcare professionals said they believe that their organization’s information technology (IT) infrastructure is secure against attacks.
Meanwhile, 15 percent of healthcare professionals responded they do not think their information technology infrastructure is secure, and another 15 percent responded that they are working on securing their information technology infrastructure.
What’s more, a final 15 percent said that they were unsure of their IT infrastructure’s security against an attack.
The poll was conducted July 11, 2017 and reflects the responses of 1,236 healthcare professionals.
Almost one-third (30 percent) of respondents said their organization has faced some form of cyberattack, while a little more than half (54 percent) reported they had not been attacked and 12 percent said they were unsure.
After the recent WannaCry and “Petya” global ransomware attacks and other numerous attacks, MGMA Government Affairs recommends that practice leaders take active steps to protect their practices against cyberattack, including conducting a HIPAA security risk assessment, updating operating systems and antivirus software, encrypting systems and files containing patient information and frequently training staff on malware protection protocols.
