Protecting Healthcare and Academia Against Cyber Threats

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, cyber threats have worsened for
some 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
pandemic. Host Luke McNamara invited Monte Ratzlaff, Cyber Risk
Program Director at the University of California Office of the
President, to join us for this episode of Eye on Security so we could
discuss the important research they secure.

Monte and Luke 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.