On November 23, Moody's Investors Service announced the issuance of a new report, "Cross Sector -- Global: Cyber Risk of Growing Importance to Credit Analysis," which concluded that more analysis of potential cyber security breaches must be included in the assessment of creditworthiness of healthcare and other business entities.
Despite the number of highly publicized security breaches in the healthcare industry and the growing exposure created as many more medical devices become wirelessly networked, in a recent survey of healthcare executives (previously discussed here), only 53% of the providers and 66% of the health plans responding felt that their organizations are adequately prepared to prevent or defend against attacks.
The Moody's report read, "We see cyber risk rising at a steep trajectory. This means the credit implications associated with cyber defense, detection, prevention and response should start to take a higher priority within our credit assessments and analysis." Moody's added that proactive governance and compliance activities regarding cyber security would help the profile of healthcare organizations being reviewed.
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