​In a recent article published by CIO Asia, author John Edwards explores the decision by many organizations to blend their cyber security response plans with their disaster recovery plans.

Los Angeles, CA
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The healthcare sector is now the number one target for hackers, according to the 2016 IBM X-Force Cyber Security Intelligence Index. This announcement follows a series of healthcare related breaches including one in February of 2016, when a hospital in Los Angeles lost access to patient files as a result of a ransomware attack. Eventually the hospital agreed to pay $17,000 to regain access to the files.

​For healthcare administrators, the inability to access data for even a short period of time can sometimes create life-threatening situations; paying ransom is often the quickest way to normalcy. Further, the increasing presence of IoT and network-aware devices in hospital networks is another factor increasing the risk for providers.

As required by HIPAA, it's imperative that healthcare organizations get in front of this issue. By deploying a defense in depth approach, which includes monitoring their data networks, organizations would be alerted of the tell tale early signs of any intrusions. Although the cost and complexity associated with this type of monitoring has historically limited it to Fortune-500 companies, organizations like Cienaga Systems are changing this and now provide easy to implement, effective and affordable cloud based solutions for small and medium sized organizations, which autonomously monitor and alert in real-time if a breach is taking place.