According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report released today, the average healthcare data breach has reached $10.93 million which is an 8% jump from a year ago, when the average cost topped $10 million for the first time.
For the 13th year in a row, the healthcare industry has suffered more expensive data breaches than any other sector. By comparison, the average cost of a data breach across all industries is less than half at $4.45 million.
“We’re seeing a very big increase for healthcare organizations, probably because they’re really in the crosshairs of attackers. And there is no relenting so far,” said Limor Kessem, a senior cybersecurity consultant for IBM Security.
Meanwhile, healthcare organizations have trailed other industries in their cybersecurity defenses as health systems have had trouble attracting top cybersecurity talent, because other industries pay better.
“Security folks are going to work for places where they could get the bigger paycheck, and it’s not always going to be a healthcare organization,” Kessem says. “It’s a tough industry to get very skilled staff.”
I have three comments on this. The first is from Carol Volk, EVP, BullWall:
“Work smarter, not harder. There is good affordable automation available (and coming) in the cybersecurity field. Even the best cybersecurity teams get overwhelmed by too many alerts, so there is a serious effort to automate the filtering of those “alerts” to just those requiring immediate human interaction, effectively slowing down the alert pace to a manageable, human speed. This is why the automation of detection and containment of attacks is more and more the focus. The attack is slowed or stopped before data can be affected, allowing defenders time to respond. The application of AI is expected to greatly accelerate this effort of determining what must be reviewed by humans for response.”
The second is from Emily Phelps, Director, Cyware:
“Healthcare will always be an attractive target for threat actors because of the valuable data they collect and store. Adversaries don’t only outnumber available cybersecurity pros; they collaborate effectively too. To mitigate the risks, healthcare organizations should leverage automation tools that enable lean security teams to efficiently address threats; they should ensure they invest in regular security awareness training so employees are armed to recognize and avoid common threat tactics such as phishing attacks; and they should consider partner with security providers that can act as an extension of their teams, gaining expertise that is more difficult to resource and retain internally.”
And the last is from Stephen Gates, Principal Security SME, Horizon3.ai:
“The healthcare industry is being impacted by an enormous threat landscape with vast numbers of threat actors who are looking to breach organizations’ networks, steal their data, hold them for ransom, and potentially destroy their businesses. The defensive technologies they have in place are proving to be insufficient in blocking today’s attacks. Continuously assessing your network attack surface, finding your weaknesses, remediating them immediately, and verifying that your remediations worked is the best way organizations can stay ahead of attackers. Consider attacking yourself daily, then fixing what matters most.”
The challenges with securing the healthcare space need to be fixed, and that needs to happen now. Whether that’s through automation, people, or both, the status quo cannot be allowed to continue.
It’s Official… Twitter Is Now “X”… Cue The Chaos
Posted in Commentary with tags Twitter on July 24, 2023 by itnerdYesterday I wrote that Elon Musk had teased that he was going to rename Twitter to “X”. It’s now official, Twitter is now being rebranded to “X”:
And:
Cue the chaos… Because when Elon Musk does anything, chaos usually follows. I cite this as example number one:
Cops were briefly called to Twitter’s San Francisco HQ after a worker began tearing down letters from the building’s iconic sign a day after Elon Musk rebranded the platform to ‘X’.
Police responded to a ‘possible unpermitted street closure’ outside the building on Monday afternoon after a man on a cherry picker was seen removing pieces of the company’s sign – but later said no crime had been committed.
As of 2.30pm work appeared to have halted for unrelated reasons and on one face of the sign all that remained were the letters ‘er’ and a bird.
San Francisco Police Department officers suggested the work had been authorized by Twitter but not been properly communicated with building security. Police told DailyMail.com in a statement that it was not a police matter and directed any further questions to Twitter.
Well, perhaps Elon should have organized things better. But that’s what you get when you have a guy who is known for his “ready, fire, aim” style of doing things. Then the brand equity that Elon has burned in the dumpster fire that used to be known as Twitter:
“It has become a verb. That’s the holy grail,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. “This is a brand that has secured a place in our cultural lexicon. Musk has wiped out over 15 years of brand equity in the Twitter name.”
And:
“For most users and advertisers and folk in the tech world, the product itself is the problem. Putting a new name on it doesn’t change that in any material way,” said Boston College communications professor and branding expert Michael Serazio.
Clearly Elon’s no marketing genius. Though I would also argue that he’s not a genius when it comes to anything. But he might have bigger problems with this rebranding:
Yeah. Microsoft own’s the trademark to “X”. And I’m betting that there’s a bunch of people in Redmond who are getting ready for a lawsuit.
Great job Elon. You yet again played yourself.
UPDATE: The fine folks (robots?) at dBrand have just pwned Twitter:
UPDATE #2: Elon’s issues with stepping over trademarks is getting worse:
I really hope that this dimwit has a good lawyer. Because methinks he’s screwed.
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