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Five tips to protect veterinary practices against cyberattacks
By Coco Lederhouse
Published: 15 September 2023
Roughly 11,000 veterinary practices each year experience a cyberattack, and with just over 800,000 complaints of suspected internet crime in 2022, odds are the average practice owner is at risk.
On July 14 at AVMA Convention 2023 in Denver, Clint Latham, founder of Lucca Veterinary Data Security, presented the session, "The Most Important Thing That No One is Talking About: The Current State of Cyber Security in Veterinary Medicine."
Latham's goal is to help veterinarians realize the value of their data and take steps to protect it.
"Practice owners and managers don't think their practice has any data that a cybercriminal would want," Latham said. "But your practice management system is the heartbeat of your business—it runs basically your entire operation and that's insanely valuable."
In a survey of veterinary hospitals conducted by Lucca Veterinary Data Security, 90% of respondents said they weren't worried about cyberattacks. With the rise of new technology, veterinary practices should protect themselves from being compromised. Artificial intelligence (AI) programs, such as the chatbot ChatGPT, make it even easier for a hacker to create and deploy ransomware tools.
To see the full version of this story, visit the AVMA News website.
