In the last 12 months, around 82% of hospital IT security leaders reported a “significant security incident”. However, despite this worrying statistic, only 5% of their IT budget is spent of cybersecurity, leaving the vast majority of the healthcare sector exposed to cybercriminal activities.

Hospitals are a tempting target for cybercriminals. One of the main reasons for this is the large amount of personal data that they store. A person’s medical information can be worth between 20 and 50 times more for a cybercriminal than someone’s financial information. On top of this, many hospitals use outdated systems, which makes cybercriminals’ jobs much easier.

Over the last few years, the sector has experienced such alarming attacks as the leaking of the personal data of 1.5 million patients in Singapore in 2018, or the WannaCry attacks, which cost the NHS almost £100 million (€115.82 million). What’s more, in April this year, researchers developed a piece of malware that was able to alter the results of medical scans.

Case study: The Trust Hospital Company

The Trust Hospital Company (TTHC) provides quality healthcare to patients across Ghana through 9 facilities, including 3 hospitals and 6 clinics.

The challenge

Like many organizations, The Trust Hospital Company want to streamline the institution’s internal processes, facilitate collaboration, and improve data security.

“‘Healthcare providers owe it to their patients to deliver a high level of care that extends beyond their medical treatment to the administration processes of handling and securing their highly sensitive personal data”, explains Bright Aflakpui-Harley, TTHC Network Administrator.

“In our efforts to shift to digital processes, the number of devices in our

organisations network is growing. While this growth helps us achieve our vision it also opens us up to cybersecurity risks”, says Aflakpui-Harley.

It is often the case in hospitals that many users have access to the same computer to share files between doctors and departments. The TTHC is no exception. This situation exposes the organization to both internal and external cybersecurity risks. To mitigate them, Aflakpui-Harley needed an exhaustive advanced network cybersecurity strategy to monitor and control the activity on all his endpoints.

The solution

TTHC has been a Panda Security customer since 2009. For this reason, Aflakpui-Harley trusted us to deploy a holistic solution in his organization. This advanced cybersecurity solution was Panda Adaptive Defense 360 and the additional service, Panda Systems Management.

Panda Adaptive Defense 360 combines endpoint protection, detection and response features (EPP and EDR), as well as offering a service to classify all processes run on the network. This service, included in the solution with no additional cost, stops any binary that hasn’t been certified by Panda from running.

Thanks to the installation of Panda Systems Management to manage, monitor and maintain the organization’s devices, along with Panda Adaptive Defense 360, both Aflakpui-Harley and his team can securely and remotely control the network from a centralized console. “Systems Management’s easy-to-use, lightweight web console means we have full visibility of all of our devices and can easily take control of devices and do what needs to be done without having to travel” says Afalkpui-Harley

Adaptive Defense 360 is an ideal solution for a dispersed organizational network like TTHC, as it requires very few resources and provides advanced protection from today’s threats.

Since implementing Panda Systems Management and Adaptive Defense 360 THHC has been free from malware and cyberattacks that cause network downtime. They have been able to continue to move forward with the digital transformation of their facilities, protecting their users’ sensitive information.

Read the full case study.