London, Europe Brief News – With the Ukraine crisis have come warnings of a rising cyber danger. As EHRs, data sharing, telemedicine, and other ICT grow more ubiquitous in European healthcare system; hackers are increasingly targeting healthcare organizations.
According to the American Hospital Association, hospitals might be directly targeted or constitute collateral damage in a malware assault by Russia in February, one day after the invasion of Ukraine. Dr. Sabina Magalini, an emergency trauma surgeon at Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital, says the danger has shifted away from persons seeking financial gain. “The objective today is to hurt, not ransomware,” she added.
Magalini, who recently worked on an EU-funded cybersecurity initiative called Panacea, says medical professionals are busy, and IT departments function in silos. While digitization and AI are increasingly used in health, cyber-hygiene remains unequal. “I usually say you may be more compliant if you worked at a nuclear power plant. Unless you work in European healthcare system, cybersecurity isn’t the primary concern.
The European healthcare system faces Cyber threat.
European healthcare system failure may be fatal. Last May, an Irish healthcare system lost phone and email connections when a staff member read a rogue MS Excel file. In 2020, a cyber-attack in Germany killed a patient by delaying care.
The EU’s policy to improve cybersecurity got updated later this year. Anonymization may help secure patient data, and Enisa provides training webinars to increase employee abilities. Enisa claims over 350,000 cybersecurity jobs remain vacant throughout Europe.
As Alessandro Ortalda of the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels has advised governments and public entities on cybersecurity, the increasing digitalization of healthcare produced two security flaws. One is the risk of hackers compromising patient safety by hacking linked equipment. Subsequently, obtaining patient data to sell or hold to ransom.
Funding issues faced by EU Government
A good data protection framework like GDPR is essential but difficult to adhere to, Ortalda says. “How to transform these lofty concepts into practical needs at the implementation level is sometimes challenging for security personnel.
Experts say that awareness of the cyber threat is rising, but funding remains a problem. However, Ortalda proposes better funding and the introduction of new data protection officer positions (DPOs). Furthermore, assisting organizations in preparing that are related to European healthcare system . “DPOs and privacy agencies are currently understaffed and underfunded. However, this is a major issue for hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.”
Defensive and offensive techniques will change, he added. “The aggressor is always ahead. Invasion is always simpler than defense.”
