Like it or not, healthcare is more mainstream than many like to believe, and with that comes its own set of problems because of this visibility. This is especially true when those nefarious actors continue to target the sector like every other.

It happened again this month, in the wake of a major attack across the internet — the now-famous hack against the servers of Dyn, a major domain name systems host. Specifically, electronic health vendors Athenahealth and Allscripts saw their customer-facing websites go dark for several hours amid a nationwide hack that also targeted Twitter, Spotify, Reddit and Shopify.

Reports by Modern Healthcare suggest that Athenahealth's clinical functions did not cease — only the public site — so none of the company's EHR functions were impaired. Dyn posted on its website that it experienced an attack in the early morning hours of Oct. 21, but restored services a few hours later and a second attack occurred around 11 a.m. CT.

Acording to CynergisTek, an Austin, Texas-based security firm, the malware hack is called Mirai. It uses the same code that was used in September to paralyze the popular KrebsonSecurity.com blog in what's called a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

According to the magazine, "The malware first scours the so-called Internet of Things, which is made up of millions of computerized and internet-connected devices that range from coffee pots to security cameras to door locks." It then turns them into an army of attack devices that send traffic at whatever the target address is, overwhelming and crashing it. Anyone connected to it loses their connectivity.

Mirai uses the default passwords to gain access, and once it's able to get access to this account, it installs malware on the system. Sentinel One, a cybersecurity software firm, says the malware creates delayed processes, then deletes files that might alert antivirus software to its presence.

"Mirai opens ports and creates a connection with botmasters and then starts looking for other devices it can infect," according to Sentinel One. "After that, it waits for more instructions. Since it has no activity while it waits and no files left on the system, it is difficult to detect."

Prior to the Oct. 21 attack, the total number of IoT devices infected with the Mirai malware was nearly 500,000, according to internet backbone provider Level 3 Communications. Accordingly, the firm argues that with a rapidly increasing market for these devices and "little attention being paid to security," the threat from these types of attacks is growing and likely will continue to pervade.

In mid-September, Level 3 Communications discovered Mirai — and recently the source code of Mirai was released, inspiring a significant number of new bad actors who are exploiting vulnerable devices. As more "Rotten Tomatoes" actors take the scene, continue to expect that more domains will be breached.

As this and other attacks have showcased, healthcare should continue to expect more and take precautionary steps. The key is preparedness for these sorts of attacks, just as organizations must do for more conventional means, such as power outages and hardware malfunctions.

After all, the best medicine is prevention.