Application attacks are on the rise in healthcare organizations across the country. The high demand from both patients and staff to have easy access to records and scheduling has resulted in a growing number of web applications being offered to users. However, as with any technology surge, the increase in adoption has led to an upswing in data breaches. To combat these cyber attacks and mitigate the many risks associated with this type of compromise, healthcare organizations have come up with new strategies to protect their digital assets. At the top of the list of resources designed to counter an attack? Website application firewalls.
Used to respond to threats and guard against attacks, web application firewalls offer hosted application protection from network security threats and several vital operational benefits, including:
Why You Need a Firewall
Enhanced Protection from Unauthorized Personnel
Web application firewalls enhance protection of your health company data from exposure to unauthorized personnel. As healthcare strongly relies on storing its private data securely, the web application firewall assists in keeping information out of reach and promotes data loss prevention across the organization. It proactively protects websites and applications against fraud or theft of data by blocking unapproved access.
Increases Efficiency and Healthcare Performance
One of the major benefits of using a web application firewall is that it can improve the overall efficiency of the healthcare company. Data loss poses a substantial risk to medical providers, and may even lead to a halt in the facility’s ability to provide care. The web application firewall improves cybersecurity efforts and protects mission-critical data, directly influencing a provider’s ability to perform effectively and efficiently.
Stops Leakage of Data
Hackers can gather your healthcare data in a myriad of ways. Data leakage may be as a result of an insignificant malicious error message presented to a user. For example, if your health company is harboring critical data such as credit card numbers, it becomes a prime target for data leakage. A web application firewall helps by scanning every request to your web application user, and if something unusual happens, it stops the action immediately, protecting your company from a data breach.
Vulnerability Protection
System uptime is a critical factor for service delivery and a web application firewall plays a key role in improving this metric for your healthcare company. Most organizations run vulnerability scans against their assets and applications, and it is oftentimes difficult to apply necessary security patches to those production applications. Many web application firewalls allow organizations to import vulnerability scan findings and apply a temporary virtual patch that can buy extra time for testing and change control approval. This can result in reduced down time for the system.
Creates A Place For Adaptive Learning
The web application firewall is unique in both its protection requirements and design. To protect your healthcare organization’s information from security issues, you must ensure that every person adheres to normal good behavior, including sanitizing user input to the servers and limiting application error outputs that may give an attacker valuable insight into how the application operates. Web application firewall provides comprehensive and adaptive learning technologies. This helps to protect dynamic applications and promotes a better understanding of the semantics of all applications, health transactions, and healthcare company data.
Helps to Authenticate Users Directly
The web application firewall is essential for any healthcare company as it can allow or deny specific incoming commands from a particular server user. This provides better content filtering capabilities by examining the entire network, rather than just addresses. The web application firewall offers valuable information for dealing with security incidents for your healthcare company. The many benefits of a web application firewall can play an integral role in keeping your patient and company data safe for optimal user peace of mind.
