Efficient work in modern day healthcare is unthinkable without digital devices. Though technical machinery is never able to replace the human aspect, it is an essential tool: starting with common x-rays and MRTs up to the necessary administrative tasks of dispensing respirators and managing patient files.

Organically grown networks can be kept working up to some point but are rarely future-proof. Between requirements to access lab results in real time, maintaining legacy computer systems and patients craving for free WiFi and streaming, one thing should be kept in mind: security is what keeps any of the above operational.

According to our research the main challenges for IT security in healthcare are:

• Legacy systems that have to be maintained for operating expensive machinery
• Complex network setups that had to be extended on demand
• Redundancy is a requirement: failure of certain systems can be life-threatening
• The “medical IoT” offers an increasing attack surface as security is hardly ever considered in the development of such devices.

What sticks out from the chart is a high number of Network & Application Anomaly Incidents. Especially we see high amounts of Confirmed Incidents regarding Unauthorized Information Disclosure.