Most cyberattacks cause 4 hours of downtime: 7 things to know

Julie Spitzer -

Physicians may need more cybersecurity training and education, according to a recent American Medical Association and Accenture survey.

For the survey, AMA and Accenture tapped 1,300 physicians across the U.S. to find out about their experience and attitudes toward cybersecurity.

Here are seven things to know.

1. More than four out of  five physicians experienced some type of cyberattack, the most common being phishing (55 percent), followed by viruses or malware (48 percent) and unauthorized employee access (37 percent).

2. More than half (55 percent) of physicians are very or extremely concerned about future cyberattacks, as opposed to 2 percent of physicians who are not at all concerned.

3. Most physicians (64 percent) said a cyberattack resulted in four hours or less of downtime, while others (4 percent) said an attack shut down their systems for more than two days.

4. In response to a cyberattack, most physicians said they notified internal IT groups (65 percent), notified or educated employees (61 percent) or implemented new written policies and procedures (59 percent).

5. About half (49 percent) of physicians said they have an in-house security official, while others outsource security management (26 percent) or share security management with another practice in their area (23 percent).

6. The plurality (37 percent) of physicians said privacy and security training content is developed by the health IT vendor.

7. Physicians said the most helpful training tools are tips for good cyber hygiene (50 percent), simplified legal language of HIPAA (47 percent) and an easily digestible summary of HIPAA (44 percent).

Click here to view the survey.

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