Health care organizations face some monumental operational challenges, in terms of ensuring quality healthcare consistently, and within the norms of regulatory compliance. Especially in this age, when businesses are increasingly targeted and exploited by cyberthreats, healthcare organizations are among the most afflicted ones. Online health records are misused by hackers, who buy and sell them to identity thieves on the dark web.
Cyber-criminals are also well aware of the importance of network uptime for health care providers, which might be one of the reasons why several hospitals have been targeted of late – and with an unprecedented level of success. In fact, in a recent ransomware incident, the extortionists asked for a second ransom upon having their demand met.
Now, more than ever, the vitality of a health care provider’s network must be a top priority. Here are just a few ways how Faronics’ computer management solutions can help :
Reduce Downtime with ‘Reboot to Restore’ Technology
Some vulnerabilities are impossible to detect until it’s too late. Zero-day threats happen when an unknown weakness in a software’s code is exploited by hackers to break into a system. According to Ars Technica, the number of zero-day threats more than doubled over the previous year in 2015.
The ‘Reboot to Restore’ functionality of Deep Freeze, can be a real lifesaver in the event of a ransomware attack or any other malware intrusion. In the event of an intrusion, rather than giving in to hackers’ demands – like one Hollywood hospital paid (an estimated $17,000 ransom) – health care organizations can revert their critical systems back to a previously saved pristine state, with a simple reboot and continue their operations.
Control Which Applications Can Execute
Whether it’s a keylogger malware designed to steal login credentials by recording keystrokes or an encryption malware, meant to extort its victims or something else, one of the best ways to prevent an attack is by blocking the execution of the malicious software before it can cause problems in the first place. This can be done using an application white-listing approach.
Health care admins can use this solution to easily white-list specific software so as to enable productivity applications while blacklisting potentially pernicious executions. This can help keep malware and other cyberthreats from ever running on the network. Deep Freeze Cloud has an application control feature, which helps IT admins do just that.
Keep Your Software Up-To-Date
Another way to defend against these nasty cyberthreats is to always keep software on the network up to date, and to have the ability to quickly patch applications on multiple network computers – and servers, for that matter. The automatic software updater feature in Faronics Deep Freeze Cloud achieves this by letting admins update software from a single, intuitive Web-based dashboard.
Admins can easily ensure that they’re running up-to-date software, having the ability to swiftly run emergency patches and improve system availability.
To learn more about how Deep Freeze Cloud can help your health care organization protect its network vitality, contact Faronics today.
