HHS guidance offers solutions to protect telehealth platforms from cybercriminals 

The Department of Health and Human Services Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center Jan. 8 released guidance on cybersecurity for telehealth applications. The guide highlights the challenges of securing telehealth platforms due to vulnerabilities that can expose them to a range of cyberattacks, such as data breaches, structured query language attacks, ransomware, phishing and more. The guide lists several ways to secure and protect patient information. 

“As health care providers integrate telehealth platforms to better serve patients remotely and improve patient outcomes, especially for patients in rural or underserved areas, cyber adversaries consider these platforms an extension of a provider’s ‘attack surface,’” said John Riggi, AHA national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “If not properly secured and network segmented, the telehealth platform’s technical infrastructure may be visible and accessible on the internet and provide access to a provider’s main networks. Using multi-factor authentication, zero-trust architecture, robust encryption and other steps recommended in the advisory will help protect provider networks and patient data.” 

For more information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Riggi at jriggi@aha.org. For the latest cyber and risk resources and threat intelligence, visit aha.org/cybersecurity.