Cyber Security Professionals in demand for the healthcare sector

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a steep increase in the number of cyber attacks across industries with attackers exploiting uncertainty of the situation and the under-preparedness of the organizations to their favor.

Implications on Healthcare sector: Whilst the world is busy in fighting its health and economic concerns, reports show that ransom ware and cyber attacks are on the rise — and health care is one of the biggest targets. With all the suddenness, the healthcare sector is trying its’ best to beat the unprepared situations to handle cyber security threats.

Healthcare as a sector has traditionally been a ‘soft spot’ for cyber criminals. Digital dependency and the rapid adaption of internet as a backbone for various Healthcare information systems (HIS), Laboratory information systems (LIS), Medical  records , Telemedicine and medical transcription have made it more  vulnerable and susceptible to cyber attacks due to the increase and vulnerability of the potential  ‘attack surfaces’.

The COVID 19 pandemic has conferred to tens and thousands of overburdened institutions with understaffed operations across the globe. With the strain on healthcare and Pharma rapidly growing manifold with each passing day, cyber criminals have successfully seized this opportunity to their favor to unleash a series of attacks.

The vast majority of these opportunistic malware attacks are in the form of Ransomware, E mail phishing attacks and DDOS with the criminals counting on the crisis situation, time constraints, lack of planning,  capacity for response  and overall organizational under preparedness. In fact, notable organizations like World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have already fallen prey to such attacks in the past few weeks.

The implementation of GDPR and ISO 27701 information security standards have also called for robust cyber security implementation as service providers will be required to abide by these norms and any deviation can result in millions of Euros in penalties.

With so much happening in the healthcare sector, more information must be secured and protected from the plight of hackers and cyber criminals. Post COVID 19, healthcare will see a well predicted demand for able professionals to establish and implement the necessary security controls and standards and drive the cyber security posture in their respective organizations.

The Praxis Post Graduate Program in Cyber security caters to the requirements by staying relevant and delivering exactly what the industry wants from the cyber security graduates. The program holistically focuses on creating industry ready cyber warriors by addressing the three major aspects of people, processes and technology with a strong focus on compliance and governance. The program delivers a well crafted blend of classroom and lab experiences to train the incumbents of all aspects of the cyber security ecosystem.