The future of cybersecurity in healthcare

Table of Contents

INTRO

Human health is very important. Everyone wants his or her health issues to be confidential. They would not want anyone to know anything regarding their health problems without their consent. Having mentioned this, it is equally crucial to emphasize that cybersecurity in healthcare is a paramount aspect. Unfortunately, the opposite has been happening, such as one breach after the other in most healthcare sectors. In the recent past, many people have lost trust in the healthcare system, especially when it comes to storing and protecting their personal information. Cybersecurity needs many improvements in the healthcare industry.

The future of cybersecurity in healthcare

Recent Healthcare Breaches and Cybersecurity Incidents

Can you recall the Wannacry attack that affected the NHS? It was a total mess in the healthcare industry as it interfered with a lot of medical information. For instance, it pushed back thousands of patients’ appointments, thus creating a huge backlog to public services. You can imagine how such services are overworked then additional work done. Even though we cannot compare this attack with the usual data breach, it causes many adverse effects.

In the year 2018, three consecutive attacks affected the Catawba Valley patient records. This breach interfered with more than 20,000 patients’’ data. Another phishing breach took place in Minnesota and 21,000 patients’’ data harvested. The third breach took place in Augusta University Health, and more than 417,000 patients’’ records were gathered. In simple reality, we can say that there are no proper measures in place to curb the cybersecurity in the healthcare industry.

Let us look into some of the issues that affect the future of cybersecurity in healthcare

The Current Issues Surrounding Healthcare Cybersecurity

Phishing

A major issue that is surrounding healthcare cybersecurity is a lack of staff training. There is no doubt that the staff is mainly concerned about the patients’ data. Unfortunately, these people are not knowledgeable about cybersecurity. They mainly ensure that they take good care of their patients. Nonetheless, there is a need for healthcare facilities to train their staff appropriately.

So many are times when healthcare institutes experienced breach because of phishing. Even though the current well-managed email filter will get rid of a number of phishing emails, still a good number will manage to get through. At this point, unknowing staff will easily fall into the trap and share confidential information. It is, therefore important for healthcare facilities to train their staff on phishing, as this will help in preventing this issue from happening. Even though this technique may not be as perfect as expected, someway it worth giving a try as with proper education and time, staff members will be able to stop phishing attempts.

Legacy Software

There is no doubt that the healthcare industry employs an older operating system in managing their day-to-day data. Most healthcare facilities are unable to upgrade their operating system because they are afraid of the risk of the system being broken. That is why they would rather stick to what they already have than consider a new operating system. Moreover, these facilities are not ready to part with a huge sum of money to pay for new medical software.

This leaves a suitable gap for hackers to try their luck. Such an operating system will stop supporting legacy software, and hackers will find a way to exploit the system. In simple reality, it is high time for healthcare facilities to start considering a new operating system.

Network Insecurity

It is normal for healthcare organizations to share data from one department to the other on a daily basis. This will definitely lead to insecure networks. In case there is a weak link between the transmission, then the hackers can easily intercept the information. Third-party interference can cause many damages to a healthcare facility.

As a way to prevent this, most healthcare facilities are now considering a VPN to protects their personal information. A Virtual private network is a necessity for any private data in this matter.

How A.I. and Cybersecurity are Transforming Healthcare

As mentioned earlier, our health comes; first, that is why we do not like it when our medical information shared with a third party without our authorization.

How IoT and cybersecurity are transforming healthcare

IoT has made a big difference in the healthcare industry. Apart from ensuring that data shared properly, IoT used for research purposes as well as ensuring cybersecurity in the healthcare industry. It has enabled great measures of fighting against cyber insecurity in the medical industry. Keep in mind that IoT used in a variety of devices where all the information conveyed within and outside the healthcare facility controlled at a general point.

Artificial intelligence to the rescue

According to a few researches conducted on cybersecurity, it is clear that every time cybersecurity measures are taken to the next level, cyber attackers will always find a way to breach it. Even though there are no proper ways to prevent cyber-attacks, today, in real-time, the attacks detected easily.

Thanks to Artificial intelligence, now there is a way that the healthcare industry can observe a set of “baseline” on its network and, in turn, alert them in case of any deviation from the ‘norm.’ Artificial Intelligence will indeed make a big difference in the future of cybersecurity in the healthcare industry. Now patients will no longer be worried about their information intercepted in between the transmission. According to Darktrace concerning AI, ‘the future of cybersecurity in healthcare security will be known as an immune system.’

When we bring IoT and AI technologies together, we shall gain additional growth opportunities in cybersecurity solutions as follows:

Establishing suitable techniques for acquiring cybersecurity suites
Consider the abilities of the new forms of security management, including biometrics.
Employ integrated security across the clinical workflow and forget about a collection of point solutions
Coming up with flexible pricing models in the healthcare IT

Final thoughts

As evidence, the young generation must play up their game in improving cybersecurity in the healthcare industry – many improvements considered to ensure a flexible solution for cybersecurity problems. The younger generation has a lot to do in this situation, especially in coming up with a solution that will stop phishing in the healthcare industry. Following the fact that the 21^st-century generation has grown up surrounded by technology, it is high time we utilize this opportunity to get rid of a cybersecurity threat.