Health Care and the Building Cyber-Security Crisis
Christopher Holt
Last week the Government Accountability Office published a report on cyber insurance, finding that demand for cyber insurance is growing in the health care industry. At the same time, however, “insurer appetite and capacity for underwriting cyber risk has contracted…especially in certain high-risk industry sectors such as health care.”
Increasing cyberattacks on health care companies paired with growing demand for expanded telehealth services mean that health care policy conversations will increasingly need to focus on data security.
In late April, cancer treatments for some U.S. cancer patients were disrupted when the Swedish-based Elekta a company that provides precision cancer radiation treatment systems had to take down its cloud system amid a data breach. While details on the type of breach have not been made public, at least 42 U.S. cancer centers had to delay scheduled treatments while the cyberatta