Cybersecurity Concerns for IoT and Healthcare
It honestly feels like most of the articles you find about data security, especially where pertaining to the Internet of Things (IoT), could easily begin with that famous Spider-Man quote about great power and responsibility. Because the IoT is capable of so many functions spread across vast global networks, it’s an apt adage. Always crucial for any organization seeking to expand in this area is choosing vendors that don’t relegate security to an afterthought or ignore opportunities to improve upon it. Continued support is vital.
As is treating your deployed IoT devices like you would any other network server. For example, monitoring for anomalous behavior in your device traffic, just as you’ve (hopefully) been doing for your network already, will help detect any disturbances to your data flow. Is it being sent solely to its intended destination? Security Boulevard also stresses the importance of remaining compliant with whatever laws relevant to the data types involved: HIPAA for medical data, GDPR for European citizens, etc. Ultimately, if even one device becomes compromised, a hacker will have much less trouble carrying out further cyber schemes.
Healthcare entities continue to be among the most vulnerable targets. Medical data is as profitable a black market item as ever. The main reason for this is the difficulty, if not impossibility, of people altering their medical/genetic information once stolen. Unlike a credit card, you can’t just get a new genomic sequence. Well, not without a lot of money and presumably some complications, at least. As a result, two-thirds of UK hospitals were breached in 2019, and 51.5% of overall breaches were in this sector. 2019 also saw the NHS fend off around 12,000 phishing attacks per day.
Combined with the pandemic, the proliferation of IoT devices across healthcare environments presents a heightened level of risk for hospitals and patients alike. Even nation-state hackers are suspected of targeting this valuable data, in a possible hunt for virus and vaccination research. Enhanced measures of data access verification can really help here, putting the data handlers in a firmer defensive stance by confirming the identity of anyone trying to gain access.
More devices, more connections: significant slowdown for IoT growth is not expected, even with things as they are right now. Amid all their other concerns, businesses can’t neglect staying apace with the security needs the IoT entails. Here at NetLib Security, we understand the critical importance of securing data across connected devices, distributed applications, and servers. We created this short explainer video that demonstrates how we simplify security for your stored data, using managing the internet of healthcare as a prime example.