Cybersecurity and Digital Health: Diabolus ex Machina?
In this article we consider the cybersecurity issues surrounding digital health, including the vulnerability of new technologies such as health apps, networked medical devices and wearable devices connected to smart technology, the weaknesses in current regulatory framework, the impact of GDPR and the potential consequences of a data breach.
In July 2018, Singapore experienced its most severe cyber-attack to date. Hackers targeted the city-state’s largest healthcare group, copying the personal data of 1.5 million patients and leaking the details of medicine dispensed to about 60,000 people, including the Prime Minister. While few attacks have taken place on such a grand scale, this is by no means an isolated incident, and the evidence suggests that the incidence of further attacks on the healthcare industry will accelerate.
The adoption by healthcare organisations and consumers of the Internet of Things, cloud-based services and “big data” analytics is now the norm. A key feature of this new landscape has been the explosion of mHealth apps and other digital health technologies on the market (and in the pipeline). These products push the boundaries of innovation, and enable an enhanced and more efficient healthcare delivery service that does not operate exclusively within large healthcare organisations but is available at consumers’ fingertips. This promises to transform and disrupt how consumers access medical services and receive (and take responsibility for) bespoke healthcare in the developed world, and has already allowed medical technology to leap-frog traditional infrastructure challenges in Africa.
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