More Devices Heighten Security Risk to EHRs

The federal Office for Civil Rights reported 24 healthcare cyber breaches January. The list includes not just big institutions but a number of smaller providers as well.
Health IT experts said such news should remind physicians that cyberattacks remain a serious threat – and one that many fail to address properly. They said many physicians still don’t understand that their electronic health record (EHR) systems are part of a large ecosystem where threats can come in anywhere and migrate throughout.
“Some doctors in these standalone practices have someone come in and do a firewall. That’s not going handle the threats,” said Michael Ebert, a partner at consulting firm KPMG who specializes in healthcare cybersecurity.
Meanwhile, cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated every year, with hackers finding new ways to gain entry into systems, said Karen McMillen, CISSP, a security risk analyst with Asante, a nonprofit healthcare institution in Medford, Oregon.
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