Kaspersky announce free availability of its core endpoint security products for medical organizations in order to help them stay protected from cyber threats during the COVID-19 pandemic. The full list of B2B products available for free for six months include: Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud Plus, Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365, Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced and Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security.
Continuity of operations and data protection is extremely critical for healthcare organizations. Especially in the uncertainty of today’s healthcare crisis, medical organizations are under extreme pressure and have to mobilize all of their forces to help people during this challenging time. For hospitals and medical institutions, it is important to ensure the stability of medical equipment and that data is constantly available for medical personnel while also protecting the privacy of their patients’ critical information.
To help medical organizations cope with this unprecedented pressure and relieve cybersecurity risks that may arise, Kaspersky is now offering its B2B product solutions available for free. This includes endpoint and cloud infrastructure protection products, such as Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced and Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security, SaaS endpoint protection like Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud Plus, and protection for Microsoft Office 365 via Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365.
In addition to this initiative, Kaspersky also suggests that medical institutions follow cybersecurity practices and implement the following measures as soon as possible:
1) Schedule basic security awareness education for both medical personnel and administration employees covering the most essential practices such as passwords and accounts, email security, use of USB devices, PC security and safe web browsing. Additionally, explain to hospital staff that there is an increasing risk of cyberthreats for healthcare IT systems.
2) Now is the time to check the hospital’s protection solution, make sure it is up to date, configured properly and covers all employees’ devices. Switch on a firewall to enable protection from threats coming from the internet. The security solution should enable protection from ransomware as it one of the common threats for medical organizations.
3) Ensure all specific medical devices are properly configured and updated, such as ventilators. If there is a chance that the number of such devices increases rapidly, develop a dedicated procedure to quickly install and configure all new devices.
4) Some hospitals urgently hire new staff which means growing the number of endpoints, including new employees’ personal devices. This can damage visibility and control over corporate IT. As such, IT services should pay special attention to adding protection to these new devices. It’s better to have security profiles, policies and licenses in advance to just add them to new devices when needed.
5) Make sure your current security solution enables purchasing of enough licenses for the increasing number of devices.
