Cybersecurity in veterinary medicine
When typical veterinary professionals think about cybersecurity, it is common for them to assume that they are not a target to cyber criminals because of how small their clinic is, all their trust is in a cyber security system, or an IT technician they have on staff. However, according to Clint Latham, JD, director of veterinary data security at Lucca Veterinary Data Security, based in Colorado, they do not care how big or small of a target you are, you are still a target to them.
During his lecture at the American Veterinary Medical Association convention in Denver, Colorado,1 Latham explained to attendees the risks that they face online as veterinary professionals. He also addressed how security errors can happen.
On the rise
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world and forced many veterinary professionals to from home, such as client service representatives, many employees were doing their work through their personal internet service. Latham explained to the attendees that with the increase of working from home, an increase of hackings and cyber-attacks also was happening.
“What we saw was a lot of people working from home, working behind home routers accessing business assets. And hackers knew that this was an easy, easy way to then get back to the primary business,” explained Latham.
Ransomware is attacking 43% of small businesses, including veterinary clinics.2 When it comes to ransomware, Latham strongly disagrees with paying the ransom because once they know that you are willing to pay, they will continue to attack your software over and over. He gave the example of a veterinary hospital in Arizona that was victim of ransomware and they have paid the ransom 3 times already with Latham predicting they will be hit another 2 times by the hackers.
How are cyber-attacks happening?
According to Latham, one of the top causes for vulnerability in a system is human error. Latham explained that it does not matter how smart you are or how high ranking in a company you are you are always at risk. He gave attendees the example of the Sony company hacking in 2014. The hackers got into the software because they dropped a flash drive labeled ‘Pay Roll’ on the ground in front of…
