One security official warns that healthcare organizations cannot afford to be the “lowest-hanging fruit” when it comes to cybersecurity. Andrew Neville, a cybersecurity strategist says while hospitals, research centers, and medical groups are even more vital today than ever before, they trail other crucial industries when it comes to making sure systems are safe from hackers.

While it is easy to blame this security deficiency on a persistent lack of investment, technology is not the only problem. A chronic dearth of cybersecurity expertise has left far too many healthcare organizations vulnerable to another type of virus: marketing.

These chronic security deficiencies leave too many healthcare professionals struggling to keep pace not only with threats, but also with other organizations, creating easy targets for attackers.

 Many, if not most, healthcare systems operate on legacy systems that use outdated operating systems that may not even receive security updates. This makes them “low-hanging fruit” for well-resourced attackers.such as credit card numbers.

Read the full story at Help Net Security.