Fayetteville-based Arkansas Oral Facial Surgery Center was recently hit by a ransomware attack that potentially breached the data of 128,000 of its patients. This was just the latest in a long line of healthcare cybercrimes, because cybercriminals keep finding ways to get into vulnerable healthcare organizations.

And one of the easier ways into a healthcare organization for a hacker is through Internet of Things devices, which are notoriously ill-secured.

63 percent of IT decision makers said that security is their top concern regarding digital technologies and processes, including the Internet of Things, a new survey from BlackBerry conducted by 451 Research found.

[Also: 5 tips to lockdown security for Internet of Things medical devices]

61 percent of the 500 IT decision makers at various businesses, including healthcare organizations, cited hackers and cyberwarfare as top concerns, the survey said.

39 percent of respondents from very large organizations revealed that a lack of collaboration among internal departments is a potential barrier to unified end-point management, including IoT devices, while 51 percent of mid-sized organizations felt the same way.

Only 37 percent of the organizations surveyed have a formal digital transformation strategy in place.

[Also: Cybersecurity firm finds '90% crud' rule rings true among 100 billion DNS records]

“The proliferation of IoT is being led by enterprises, and they continue to require a unified end-point management strategy that is capable of scaling to handle billions of connected devices,” said Marty Beard, chief operating officer at BlackBerry. “The expanding adoption of connected things means that companies are only as secure as their most vulnerable end-point.”

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com