Trend Micro has achieved Amazon Web Service (AWS) Healthcare Competency status. This accreditation adds to Trend Micro’s more than 15 AWS competencies and designations for its cloud security solutions.

The state of cyber security in South Africa is at the front of many businesses minds as cybercriminals become more targeted and sophisticated in their approach. While corporate and government institutions are no stranger to cyberthreats, a new trend has emerged with hospitals and healthcare institutions increasingly being targeted with nearly 12 500 attacks reported in 2021 and over 176-million lost patient records since 2009. This is largely due to the treasure trove of confidential information this group possesses.

“The healthcare industry faces significant challenges,” says Russell Young, cloud solutions architect at Trend Micro. “Fines, settlements, never-ending regulations, and the rise of security breaches are just some of the hurdles faced by both institutions and individuals. Healthcare institutions need to protect patient portals and other critical applications even as they move toward cloud- based server deployments.”

In Africa, the vulnerability of healthcare institutions is compounded by a critical lack of resources, knowledge, and infrastructure. This leaves institutions vulnerable to both outside and inside attacks. In fact, the insider misuse and other variations of information theft due to badly understood or inadequate security pose far more of a threat to healthcare institutions.

Critical healthcare operations and the continuous care of patients all depend on the security of highly sensitive personal data. According to Forrester Research, “Healthcare organisations must fortify security now and continuously improve it moving forward. Ransomware, insider threats, bad bots, DDoS attacks, and spear-phishing emails targeting HCOs have wreaked havoc on an already overburdened healthcare system.”

Young adds: “Trend Micro understands the healthcare industry’s unique security requirements, and we provide layered solutions that fit your existing infrastructure, won’t strain their IT resources, and will grow and change in step with your evolving IT strategy.

“Our flexible solutions are designed to address current and emerging threats and as an AWS Advanced Technology Partner, we are equipped to help healthcare institutions more easily address industry regulations and standards including HIPAA, NIST, PCI-DSS, HITRUST and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).”

AWS Healthcare Competency recognises partners with proven customer success and technical skills in their respective categories.