Dive Brief:
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Federal CIO Tony Scott warned healthcare CIOs that interoperability can be dangerous and that they should ensure proper cybersecurity protections are in place to protect patient data, according to Search Health IT.
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Scott made the remarks during a keynote at the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) CIO forum.
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Scott pointed to the fact that Internet of Things devices have been hijacked to launch massive DDoS attacks recently without the knowledge of their owners.
Dive Insight:
"There's a whole set of questions that now one really needs to ask with the cybersecurity lens in mind," Scott said. "There's no really easy way to bubble-wrap or air-wrap around old technology to do that work."
Healthcare organizations are using more technology, but are not known to have highly-secure IT systems. Given the recent increase in ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations, ensuring better security is paramount. In March, Medstar patients were turned away because the hospital chain did not have the resources to treat them after ransomware locked its systems.