(October 2021) – Your hospital has just been targeted by a cyberattack. Seem impossible? Perhaps not.

These are very interesting times we live in today. Who would have thought that supply chain would be a prime target for a cybersecurity breach? "More than 60 percent of cyberattacks launched against publicly traded U.S. companies in 2017 involved Supply Chain" Essentially, hackers target supply chain more than any other segment of the economy.

That affects hospitals and our vendor partners to a great degree. The key is to thwart such attacks by paying particular attention to the "C-Level suppliers." The matrix below helps to illustrate.

Cyber risk increases with smaller companies because they have limited resources to thwart cyber attacks. Less money and attention are given to them as they seem to be less of a perceived threat. However, the opposite is true. Because they have less to spend and not enough resources, they actually represent a larger portion of the risks; and thus are more frequent targets of attacks, allowing access to their partners … hospitals and others. We have to be careful and watch these associations with particular interest to safeguard our facilities and operations.

What can you do? Work with your IT department to assign a team, including supply chain, to review these contacts and see where the vulnerability exist. Then work to limit how much access they have to key components of your organization. Wall them off essentially to downplay any potential breach. The time and process invested could help save your organization from large exposure to a cyber attack.

Begin the process today, it could be your biggest savings of the year. Cost savings is what we do. Cost avoidance of a cyber attack could be huge by dedicating the time and resources to limit your organization's exposure. Get going now ... cyber criminals are out there and looking.
--Pat Tabor