Ironwall CEO Calls for Diligent Protection of Employees’ Personal Data in Wake of Recent Healthcare Organization Cyberattacks
31 Julio 2024 - 7:01AM
With cyberattacks on the rise, Ironwall by Incogni, a leading
provider of online privacy protection tools and services, today
advocated for healthcare organizations to adopt more stringent
policies around the protection of patient data. This can be
accomplished by expanding efforts to safeguard
employee
data readily found online—essentially adding what should
be any company’s first layer of defense to thwart potential attacks
against the enterprise.
According to Incogni, there have been 2,213 breaches targeting
healthcare since 2020, with 152 million affected individuals, which
corresponds to almost half of the US population. This year alone
there have already been ten healthcare breaches affecting more than
570,000 people, and there are still 293 open cases involving some
36 million profiles.
A devastating cyberattack on Ascension, a St. Louis-based
healthcare network that includes 140 hospitals and 40 senior living
facilities in 19 states, disrupted access to electronic health
records, negatively impacted patient care, and removed files from
seven of the system's 25,000 servers, possibly exposing patient
data. Hackers gained access to Ascension’s IT systems and
operations because one employee believed a phishing email
was legitimate and downloaded a malicious file.
“This is how ransomware is delivered now, and it makes every
employee in your organization a potential target, from the seasoned
CEO to the recently hired receptionist,” said Ron Zayas, CEO of
Ironwall by Incogni. “Through AI and social engineering methods,
phishing scams have become more customized and sophisticated. Even
the most vigilant of employees can be duped—and all it takes is one
click on one link to create a disaster.”
Such phishing attacks often rely on personal information to
mislead an email recipient. “People are far more likely to click on
a link if they believe the email is coming from a person or company
familiar to them or if it contains information that only a close
friend or relative would know,” added Zayas.
Unfortunately, private information about all of us—home address,
friends, relatives, personal habits, even photos—is now accessible
online with a simple Google search, to be easily obtained and
weaponized. But what is public now can be made private again, and
authentic identifying content such as phone numbers and email
addresses can be replaced with alias content that cannot be traced
back to the user.
“Cost-effective solutions are available if companies would only
take advantage of them,” Zayas offered. “A proactive investment in
privacy protection is the best insurance against having to pay
millions after a ransomware attack – not to mention the
reputational hit that accompanies the leak of patient data, and the
class action suits that follow.”
And while the impetus should be on organizations to protect
themselves, individuals are also vulnerable outside of work, and
can benefit from online privacy protection to keep their families
safe from having their identifying information weaponized.
To learn more about Ironwall by Incogni, click here. For a
deeper dive into the current state of online privacy and how it’s
being compromised, download “The Weaponization of Privacy: Why It
Will Get Worse, and How You Can Stop It” white paper.
Images to accompany this release can be found here.
About Ironwall by IncogniIronwall by Incogni
strongly supports the idea of a safe and private internet. As a
legally contracted agent, Ironwall works with superior courts,
social work departments, and law enforcement agencies to search and
remove personal information from websites in violation of state and
federal privacy restrictions. Ironwall is a member of the Surfshark
and NordSec family of companies. For more information, visit
https://ironwall360.com/.
Editorial Contact:David Hofstede844-476-6360
x600david.hofstede@360civic.com