Cybersecurity is now a core part of running a radiology practice
Writing in Diagnostic Imaging in 2020, Dhruv Chopra, then CEO of Collaborative Imaging (now CIVIE), argued that radiology practices needed to invest in cybersecurity immediately. Digitization had made healthcare more connected and efficient, but it also put vast amounts of patient data on interconnected networks that hackers were actively probing.
Why radiology’s risk was rising
Chopra pointed to three forces. Radiology had become a mainly digital profession, the industry was consolidating, and COVID-19 had pushed many radiologists to read remotely on less secure devices and home wireless networks.
The costs he cited were significant. Cybercrime cost the healthcare industry around $6.2 billion a year, with individual organizations losing an average of $3.7 million, before counting post-breach costs, HIPAA fines and lawsuits. Employees play a part too: a 2016 BakerHostetler report attributed 24 percent of healthcare data breaches to employee error. Patients bear the harm as well. More than 40 million people were affected by healthcare data breaches in 2019, double the 2018 figure.
Who attackers target
Attacks can take many forms, from stealing protected health information to malware and ransomware that tampers with images and scans. Chopra noted two consistent patterns:
- Small and medium-sized practices, which often lack the staff or budget to field a full cybersecurity team.
- Consolidated networks, where imaging and patient data flow across many facilities, giving attackers more ways in.
Steps practices can take
The article recommends two priorities:
- Proper security systems, including AI-based tools that learn normal patterns, protect data automatically and identify suspicious activity.
- Stronger protection for mobile devices, including tighter authentication and access controls, regularly changed passwords, extra authentication steps and limits on the number of devices in use.
Why it still matters
Remote reading and multi-site networks are now normal in radiology, so the exposure Chopra described has only grown. His conclusion still holds: for a practice already under pressure, a single breach could be the “ultimate kiss of death.” CIVIE treats security as a platform requirement, and you can read more about our approach on the trust page.
Source: “The Importance of Cybersecurity in This Era of Radiology,” Dhruv Chopra, Diagnostic Imaging, August 19, 2020.
