ComplianceJunction Launches Cybersecurity Training Course for Frontline Healthcare Professionals
ComplianceJunction has launched a new training program for healthcare professionals that raises awareness of cyber threats and teaches security best practices to help them recognize and avoid the common threats that target healthcare workers.
Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations have increased significantly in recent years, with 2023 seeing record numbers of attacks on healthcare organizations of all sizes. These attacks cause massive disruption to patient services with IT systems taken offline for weeks during the recovery process. According to the HHSโ Office for Civil Rights, ransomware attacks have increased by 264% in the past 5 years and large data breaches have increased by 256%.
Initial access to healthcare networks is often gained by targeting healthcare employees, either through phishing to steal credentials or by tricking them into downloading malware onto their devices. The recent cyberattack on Ascension, which took its electronic medical records offline for a month, occurred as a result of an employee being tricked into downloading malware and a recent phishing campaign targeting the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health allowed hackers to gain access to 53 employee email accounts.
Having the right cybersecurity solutions in place will limit the number of threats that reach employees, but technical defenses can be bypassed so it is essential to ensure healthcare workers are provided with security awareness training to raise awareness of the threats they are likely to encounter.ย To help healthcare organizations meet regulatory requirements and better protect against cyberattacks, ComplianceJunction has developed a new online cybersecurity awareness training course – Cybersecurity Awareness Training for Healthcare Organizations. The training course addresses a gap in training needs and has been specifically developed for frontline healthcare workers, who are often targeted by hackers and ransomware gangs.
The training course teaches healthcare workers about the most common threats such as phishing, social engineering, malware, and business email compromise scams, and helps them recognize these threats when they arrive in an inbox, via SMS, instant messaging platforms, or on the Internet. Since the training course is modular, it is easy for healthcare workers to fit into their busy schedules, with each module taking less than 10 minutes to complete.ย As healthcare professionals complete each module, the course administrator can measure progress and demonstrate their good faith effort to raise awareness of cyber threats and meet the security awareness training requirements of the HIPAA Security Rule.
โFrontline healthcare workers are often targeted by cybercriminals and are often successful due to a lack of security awareness,โ said ComplianceJunctionโs Ryan Coyne. โProviding frontline healthcare workers with training can greatly reduce susceptibility to phishing and malware attacks and helps healthcare workers safeguard patient data. Our new cybersecurity awareness training course raises awareness of the threats healthcare workers are likely to encounter and teaches the skills they need to recognize and avoid those threats.โ