The number of cyber-attacks around the world exploded in 2020: exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity for cybercriminals to take advantage of the shift in focus towards smart working and hospital staff transferred to the frontline.
Cybersecurity in healthcare: A systematic review of modern threats and trends.
This paper (February 2017) carries out a systematic review of cybersecurity trends in healthcare and identifies possible solutions cited in the literature.
Abstract: The adoption of healthcare technology is arduous, and requires planning and implementation time. Healthcare organisations are vulnerable to modern trends and threats because it has not kept up with threats.
Objective: The objective of this systematic review is to identify cybersecurity trends, including ransomware, and identify possible solutions by querying academic literature.
Methods: The reviewers conducted three separate searches through the CINAHL and PubMed (MEDLINE) and the Nursing and Allied Health Source via ProQuest databases. Using key words with Boolean operators, database filters, and hand screening, 31 articles that met the objective of the review were identified.
Results: The analysis of 31 articles showed the healthcare industry lags behind in security. Like other industries, healthcare should clearly define cybersecurity duties, establish clear procedures for upgrading software and handling a data breach, use VLANs and deauthentication and cloud-based computing, and to train their users not to open suspicious code.
Conclusions: The healthcare industry is a prime target for medical information theft as it lags behind other leading industries in securing vital data. It is imperative that time and funding is invested in maintaining and ensuring the protection of healthcare technology and the confidentially of patient information from unauthorised access.
PANACEA Research perspectives: Funded under H2020, PANACEA is direct response to the gaps identified in the 2017 study. PANACEA pursues a holistic approach to cybersecurity in healthcare, spanning new technlogical solutions through a dedicated toolkit (security-by-design, dynamic risk management, identity management: machine to machine and human to machine, secure information sharing), processes and people with tools covering risk governance, secure behaviour nudging, education and learning.
Keywords: cybersecurity, healthcare, ransomware
Lookout Watch entry date: 04/02/2020.