Cyber security market to grow big time

Report cites inadequate IT spending by healthcare organizations, lack of awareness
By Bernie Monegain
06:30 AM

The global healthcare cybersecurity market is expected to exceed $10 million by 2022. To be exact, a new report pegs the market at $10,848.87 million in U.S. dollars.

The report from San Francisco-based Grand View Research ascribes the anticipated growth of the market to the increasing number of cyber attacks for misuse of electronic patient health records, social security records and theft of intellectual property.

The report notes that in the past, cyberattacks were focused on stealing, financial information, billing information and bank account numbers using stolen devices with un-encrypted data, phishing and spam mails. Today, advancements in technology has made possible the use of SQL injections, advanced persistent threats, zero day attacks and advanced malware, according to Grand View Research.

[See also: Live updates from the Privacy and Security Forum in Boston.]

The report cites inadequate IT spending by healthcare organizations and also a lack of awareness about cybercrime as leaving healthcare organizations more vulnerable than ever, noting that the overall impact of cyberattacks on hospitals and healthcare systems is estimated to be nearly $6 billion per year.

Also, the report asserts healthcare organizations face internal threats due to factors, such as the use of cloud services, unsecure networks, employee negligence, bring your own device - or BYOD, lack of internal identification and security systems and stolen devices with un-encrypted files.

Other key findings from the report:

  • In 2014, North America held the largest market share of more than 41 percent, owing to the presence of sophisticated healthcare infrastructure and increasing collaboration between pharmaceutical and medical device industries, with regulatory authorities. This can be illustrated using the U.S FDA guidance document on networked medical devices.
  • The U.S. is a prime target for cybercrimes due to the presence of large fortune 500 healthcare organizations, full scale implementation of digital patient records and use of extensive social security IDs for various transactions.
  • Asia Pacific is identified as one of the most lucrative regional market, growing at a CAGR of over 8.5 percent during the forecast period. Rapidly improving healthcare infrastructure and high economic growth in developing countries such as China, India and South Korea is expected to boost usage rates over the forecast period.
  • The increasing number of Internet users in China and India is expected to create a huge user base vulnerable to cyber attacks. According to data published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the Internet user base in India is expected to reach nearly 402 million by December 2015.

Key players operating in the healthcare cybersecurity market include: Cisco, IBM, MacAfee, Paulo Alto Networks, Symantec, Trend Micro Lockheed Martin, FireEye, Northrop Grumma, Kaspersky and others.

Access the report.

Related articles: 

Healthcare security: Adapt or die

CISOs: Healthcare's new rock stars

7 cyberthreats worse than PHI breaches 

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