The Internet of things (IoT) is revolutionizing varied industries but health care in specific stands the most to gain or lose. The race to replace paper with digital files, the growing practice of tele-medicine, the ubiquity of mobile devices and the increasing connections of sensitive patient information to the web, has changed the way how we see the ill, treat the sick and research new medicines. Now has come the time that it’s no surprise that these advances may increase healthcare quality and availability. However at the same time, it increases the chances for cybercrimes and ends up putting the most such vulnerable data from the modern biology labs and experiment med-warehouses at risk.There is no doubt when we say that the Internet of Things (IoT) holds tremendous promise in healthcare by potentially enabling digital health revolution and advanced patient-care delivery.
However, the potential of internet of things in healthcare domain won’t be realized unless data integrity and security are built onto the foundations of the IoT movement.
Possible Threats Areas and Mitigating Risks:
The noticeable challenges faced by healthcare organizations today are cyber threats (new directed threat scenarios can be categorized as Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)) which have increased and evolved by cyber criminals and hacktivists. This varies from earlier days when many attacks and frauds were carried out by individuals simply looking to demonstrate their computer hacking skills by disrupting company websites or their networks.
- Biomedical Devices
- System Implementation
- Machine-to-machine communication
- Health Information Exchanges
- Device manufacturers
- HIPAA Security
With this we can conclude that the necessary infrastructure to properly manage and optimize the proliferation of connected devices in healthcare domain starts with security. A strong strategy is required with includes authentication technologies and processes to verify patient and provider identities. This also validates that these devices can only be used by authorized users. Proper surety must be taken that there is complete integrity of the information which flows through communication channels between the devices with the IoT environment. Putting these security building blocks at the correct places helps in creating a closed and security loop system hence patients and provider can securely interact and in a more meaningful and engaging way.