3 steps to protect your practice from ransomware

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Ransomware is perhaps the greatest cybersecurity challenge facing the health care industry right now. A recent survey found that 73% of health systems, including hospital and physician organizations, reported their data infrastructures are unprepared to respond to attacks.The survey estimated that health care providers with 500 or more records are a staggering 300% more vulner- able to data breaches.

Numerous hospitals and medical centers—including those providing veterinary services—have had operations severely impacted, or even halted by, attacks, which is challenging under normal circumstances, but nearly insurmountable coming through a pandemic. In the instances reported, files and systems became infected, forcing practitioners to use manual pen and paper systems to keep operations from shutting down completely.

In one widely reported veterinary case, York Animal Hospital in Maine lost its server filled with patient information as well as backup data during a 2021 cyber-attack. The hospital was forced to rely on limited paper records, saved emails, and information provided by clients to rebuild many of its destroyed files.

Attackers use a wide range of techniques to break into systems, find sensitive data, deploy encryption tools to lock data, and then demand a ransom in exchange for retrieving encryption keys. By employing the measures outlined below, veterinary practitioners can help protect their business, their patients, and their data from ransomware attacks.

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