Every single year, IT increases its presence in our everyday life. We are living in the most connected period of human civilization. However, such breakthroughs create possibilities for new generations of criminals. This article tells you about the challenges of healthcare cybersecurity.
Healthcare Cybersecurity
We are living during the rising trend of cybersecurity threats. In 2020, cybercriminals caused damage on 3.3 billion dollars in the United States alone. This number doubled the price of stolen information in 2010, making robbing banks and jewelry stores entirely out of age.
However, not every piece of information costs the same on the black markets. Personally-identifying information, financial details, and protected health intel cost ten times more than stolen banking information. Data sensitivity increases the cost of data breach up to three times compared to other industries and makes healthcare cybersecurity more critical than ever. And to make matters worse, because health information is so sensitive, the cost to remedy a data breach is up to three times more than any other industry.
Thus, the government of the United States started to enforce HIPAA for healthcare institutions with significant penalties for ignoring this act. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) regulates the protection of valuable personal information.
But let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest challenges in using IoT in healthcare.
Cybersecurity Challenges in Using IoT in Healthcare
Every single industry has its problems and solutions. This section tells you about the cybersecurity challenges in using IoT in healthcare.
1. Unsecured digital devices
Combining the IoT and big data allows doctors to track the cloud and big data constantly. This innovation saves hundreds of lives every single day. However, the creators of such devices don’t put much thought into the cybersecurity of this system.
Most of the cloud and big data IoT services run on standard web browsers and operating systems, making them easy for cybercriminals. Besides, IoT devices in modern healthcare have been designed to work for 20 years. These devices include:
- Digital diagnostic testing equipment
- Heart monitors
- Ultrasound sensors
- Others
This equipment is essential to save people all over the world. Besides, it is costly to buy and maintain. Thus, cybersecurity specialists have to find a way to restore the holes in the security without replacing the hardware.
Additionally, Covid-19 forced the vast majority of people to visit doctors remotely. This increased the probability of data breaches and the need to stringer security protocols hard to enforce. Besides, we can’t exclude the human factor. It takes a doctor to download one small file from compromised websites to pass information to cybercriminals.
We can safely state that internet hygiene is one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges in healthcare.
2. Vulnerable legacy systems
The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights recently urged healthcare institutions to update legacy software due to its vulnerability to cyberattacks.
The healthcare is not very happy with it. Legacy software is an enormous expanse for organizations, but they are ready to maintain it to provide the best services and earn more money. However, complete updates are expensive, but they will disrupt the usual flow of work, which will damage the economy and overall prestige of the organization.
Consequently, the majority use outdated software, which lacks constant support from the developer and makes them more vulnerable to attack.
3. Lack of IT support
The previous section showed that not many organizations keep up to date with healthcare software development. However, the even shorter amount of the possess cohesive IT department. Many hospitals lack organization when it comes to the governance of medical devices. For example, the critical medical device can be maintained by the department that is situated at and by the IT department. This causes a conflict of interests inside the organization and makes it harder to protect the information.
Healthcare Sector Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services published the Healthcare Sector Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide in 2016. We will thoroughly cover this piece in future articles, but we want to give a seven-step list to give you a cohesive view of cybersecurity in healthcare.
- Prioritize and scope organizational components for framework adoption
- Identify systems and existing risk management approaches within the scope
- Create a desired risk management profile based on the organization’s risk factors (Target Profile)
- Conduct a risk assessment
- Create a current risk management profile based on assessment results (Current Profile)
- Develop a prioritized action plan of controls and mitigations (Action Plan)
- Implement the Action Plan
Conclusion
This article showed you the list of cybersecurity problems and presented the seven-step plan from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. However, you need to check out our exceptional services. Our specialists can help you with web design or create unique e-commerce projects. Besides, we make custom software for clients with specific requests.
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