Top Digital Threats Facing the Healthcare Domain

The healthcare sector has embraced digital technology in a big way with connected medical devices, computers, cloud, and other equipment facilitating patient management, diagnosis, and treatment. As hospital networks manage a slew of activities ranging from admissions, appointments, maintaining electronic health records, inventory management, delivering remote healthcare, and liaising with insurance companies, among others, they remain vulnerable to threats from malevolent actors. So, to address such threats, technocrats responsible for creating, testing, and maintaining the digital architecture for healthcare need to adhere to the regulations outlined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Given the digital connectivity of various devices and networks, there are potential risks associated with data security in healthcare and life sciences. Thus, more than ever, healthcare professionals should apply adequate safeguards to prevent cybersecurity risks and ensure patient data security, among others.

Top 5 digital security threats in healthcare

Confidential patients’ data are a lucrative commodity for threat actors. They can steal these data to make ransomware demands from healthcare organizations. It is therefore important to upgrade healthcare data security and prevent hackers from breaking into the networks or data centers. The top 5 digital security threats facing the modern healthcare system are as follows:

1. Phishing and malware: Cybercriminals are adept at introducing sophisticated phishing schemes and malware into the healthcare network to steal confidential patients’ data. By stealing login credentials they can compromise the entire network. It takes only an innocuous-looking malware link for a healthcare professional to click and put the entire architecture in harm’s way. One of the common phishing schemes is to send emails asking for login information disguised to have come from authentic sources. And if someone within the system provides the login information after being tricked, all hell can break loose. Hackers on the other side of the network can gain access to the system and network, and steal all confidential data. So, it is important to train the staff into recognizing such phishing attempts.
2. Ransomware: With the pandemic raging in various parts of the world, targeted ransomware attacks are likely to surge as pharma companies get ready to launch vaccines. In fact, according to CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity technology company, ransomware attacks on the healthcare industry have gone up by 580 percent globally during the pandemic. Also, since most healthcare organizations rely on medical records to deliver critical care, they are most likely to be driven to pay ransom. Most of these attacks are a result of phishing attacks, inadvertent sharing of information, or stolen assets. To prevent ransomware attacks, data security in healthcare and life sciences should be strengthened.

#3 Endpoint security: With plenty of connected devices, including the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) playing a critical role in the functioning of the healthcare infrastructure, risks related to endpoint security have grown manifold. This calls for the implementation of medical devices security testing and mitigating the vulnerabilities. All endpoints in the healthcare network connected to the third-party software should be subjected to stringent healthcare software testing. Even APIs connecting mobile applications to bigger networks should undergo healthcare app testing to identify and fix vulnerabilities.

1. Distributed Denial of Services: DDoS attacks have become frequent in unsecured networks and can derail the functioning of any healthcare system. Protecting the system from such attacks would require securing its configuration, the software layer, and services connected to the system. With digital healthcare technology solutions, the security of data centers and the efficacy of a disaster recovery plan can be ensured. DDoS attacks are mainly the result of vulnerabilities that are specific to the development of an application.
2. Unsecured mobile devices: Most healthcare portals allow logins through mobile devices for agility and convenience. However, the portals do not always need mobile devices to adhere to established security standards. Such lack of security protocols in devices used by staff can leave them susceptible to threat vectors like malware. In many cases, the staff members may discard the old devices in favor of new ones without deleting the login credentials present in the old devices. These may turn out to be the access points for cybercriminals who can then gain access to the healthcare system and cause havoc. And such breaches are extremely difficult to monitor and plug until it is too late.

Conclusion

It is imperative that both healthcare organizations and employees using the networks and systems should be vigilant towards cybercrime. The ways to prevent cybercrime include conducting healthcare domain testing, educating employees of the dos and don’ts, establishing SOPs for communication and system access, keeping the software updated, and setting stringent device regulations, among others.

James Daniel is a software Tech enthusiastic & works at Cigniti Technologies I'm having a great understanding of today's software testing quality