Protecting Healthcare and Academia Against Cyber Threats

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, cyber threats have worsened for several industries across the globe. Universities with medical and research facilities are increasingly being targeted by threat actors because of the critical and valuable work they do surrounding the pandemic. I invited Monte Ratzlaff, Cyber Risk Program Director at the University of California Office of the President, to join me for this episode of Eye on Security so we could discuss the important research they secure.

Monte and I reviewed the types of data UC protects, which includes protected health information, payment card data, student data and research data. Even with all that data, the threats UC faces are still quite similar to what many other organizations face: phishing, ransomware and nation-state attacks.

We shifted our discussion to the challenges of securing COVID-19 research; especially at a time where ransomware is particularly rampant. Monte emphasized the critical need for organizations to know their environment and have plans in place in case attacks get through defenses.

Listen to the episode to hear insights on securing medical devices and why Monte wouldn’t be surprised to see an uptick in insider threats as a result of a larger remote workforce.