From building automation to telehealth systems, hospitals and nursing homes have embraced digital advances that offer the promise of greater efficiency, comfort, safety and savings for all facility and organization operations. But along with that potential upside comes a host of potential threats that information technology departments also must prepare for, and the riks are only expanding.

More than one-half of healthcare cybersecurity professionals say their organization has experienced a phishing attack in the last year, making it the most common type of cybersecurity incident in healthcare, according to a new survey from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

Cybersecurity has become a key issue for the U.S. healthcare system. Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, released an advisory warning of an “imminent and increased cybercrime threat” to healthcare providers.

The new survey from HIMSS polled 168 U.S.-based healthcare cybersecurity professionals, of which 55 percent worked at a provider organization, according to MedCity News. The survey was conducted from March to September.

Survey results show that the top five types of cybersecurity incidents healthcare organizations experienced in the past year are: phishing attacks (57 percent); credential harvesting attacks (21 percent); social engineering attacks other than phishing (20 percent); ransomware or other malware (20 percent); and theft or loss (16 percent).

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