The Biggest Problem in Vet Med No One is Talking About: The Current State of Cyber Security in Vet Med

Cyber security has become a bit of a buzzword in 2021. The high profile cyber attacks on businesses like, The Colonial Pipeline, CNA, Kasyea & JBS have raised a lot of concerns amongst larger organizations. However, veterinary medicine largely remains unconcerned. With common messaging of “Why would anyone want fluffy’s medical records” and “Our IT guy has us covered”. However the statistics tell us that over one third of small to medium sized businesses were affected by a cyber attack. (1) With veterinary medicine being lumped into the health care sector it's hard to know exactly the number of practices that are affected each year. However, using the rough estimate of one third of small-medium sized businesses from the research of Malware bytes (1). Roughly 11,000 veterinary practices each year are affected by a cyber attack. That's 228 veterinary hospitals per week!