By Dan Hounsell

Cyber attacks on healthcare systems — with their valuable patient and research data — are increasingly popular targets, and attackers are moving faster than ever and with stealthy tactics to hide their activities from system administrators.

The truth is that healthcare IT managers are struggling with some massive cybersecurity blindspots and misconceptions, making it extremely difficult to keep pace, according to Health IT Security. Mitch Parker, Indiana University Health’s executive director of information services, says the gaps not being addressed in healthcare are supply chain security, organizational integration, and physical security.

She says healthcare needs to do a better job communicating between siloed areas, specifically facilities, physical security, pharmacy, revenue cycle, and environmental services. These operational areas all work from the same physical locations, but teams can't succeed in securing the environment without working together and coordinating efforts to develop plans to secure what is being used and then developing plans to install more secure products.