Security Challenges in Healthcare Networks

This paper focuses on the security challenges of the healthcare networks, including the architecture and network issues related to it. It highlights the importance of risk mitigation steps and discusses different types of threats associated with network security. The paper concludes with effective risk mitigating strategies to minimize network security issues in the healthcare industry.

Unit Title: Overview of Network Security
Assessment Title: Security Challenges in Emerging Networks
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The paper will be focusing on the security challenges of
the healthcare networks. The paper will be focusing on
the healthcare network architecture and the network
issues related to the architecture. The paper also
highlights the importance of the risk mitigation steps
which should be practiced by the healthcare industries to
ensure network security. The different types of threats
associated with the network security are discussed in this
paper which helps in understanding and evaluating the
risk mitigating strategies which are also discussed in the
later sections of the paper. The paper concludes with
effective risk mitigating strategies which help the readers
of this document to know about all the possible steps to
minimize the chances of having any network security
issues in the healthcare industry.
Author Keywords
Networking Architecture, Risk mitigation steps,
Trafficking, TCP/UDP, Ranna Cry Ransomeware,
Spanning Tree Protocol attack, DHCP server.
INTRODUCTION
The prime objective of this paper is to understand the
security issues of the private networks in both the private
and public sector industries. The different types of
securities issues of the network based applications and the
cloud based applications are highlighted in this paper. The
paper highlights the recent developments in the field of
science and technology considering the security aspects of
healthcare networks [12]. The importance of the security
measures is also discussed in this paper which helps the
readers to more about the changing nature of the risks.
Critical analysis of the security issues are the major
healthcare industry is the most essential feature of this
papers along with that the paper also discusses the
different types of threats. The three major threats of the
healthcare care industry which are malicious programs
such as the Wannacry ransomeware, threats coming from
inside the healthcare industry and the threats coming from
the different types of phishing emails are discussed
thoroughly in the paper [5]. All the associated issue
related to these major risks are also discussed in this paper
so that all the essential details related to the network
security in hospitals as considered. The risk mitigation
steps of one of the three discussed issues are stated in the
paper. The risk mitigation steps are proposed in such a
way that it maintains the growth and productivity from
both the point of view of the internal as well as the
external stakeholders of the hospital.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
HEALTHCARE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
According to Patil, Harsh and Ravi (2014), the healthcare
network architecture is a very important aspect regarding
the healthcare care industry. The author stated that the
hospital authorities and patients access sensitive
information which is needed to be protected at any cost.
The authors of this paper highlighted the importance of
the security in the network architecture, they stated that it
is very important for the hospital authorities to
concentrate more on the architectural of those networks as
they are the most basic and fundamental units of the
networking system in the healthcare industries. According
to the author the developments in the field of advanced
computer applications has led to the growth of advanced
threats and vulnerabilities which can have a direct
negative impact on the outcome of the healthcare
industry.
According to the author all the components of the
networking architecture are vulnerable to the threats and
vulnerabilities so each of those components should be
frequently evaluated by dedicated teams which will be
enhancing the efficiency of those architecture. The writer
of this resource stated that each unit or block of the
network architecture should be critically examined so that
there is no security issues related to them. The author
focused on the importance of the analyzing different units
of the networking system such as the packets which are
transmitted from one point of a system to another point.
The security issues related to the routers can be
purposefully solved with the help of the risk mitigation
strategies which are stated in the later sections of the
paper. However, it was found that the main limitations of
this resource us that the author failed to showcase any
particular healthcare industry which is facing issues in
their network architecture.
As discussed by Baig et al. (2015), trafficking is one of
the most vital issues related to the server security in the
healthcare industries. These issues can have a direct
negative impact on the network architecture in healthcare
industry. The author of this paper focused on finding the
possible risks involved in the healthcare network
architecture and the author concluded that ARP spoofing
and Spanning Tree control attacks are the most significant
vulnerabilities associated with those networks. MAC
address flooding is the other types of network security
issues related to the healthcare network architecture.
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The author stated that there are different kinds of
malicious attacks such as the distributed denial of service
attack which is the most common types of attack in the
healthcare network architecture. The vulnerabilities
coming from the insiders are the other source of concern
for the healthcare network architecture as they have the
access to the entire fundamental architecture of the
healthcare network. According to the author, the security
of the healthcare network should be enhanced as much as
possible.
The author stated that the unauthorized access is a type of
threat coming from the insiders is also a concern for the
healthcare industries as any types of alteration of the data
which are transmitted in the hospital organizations is very
much harmful for both the perspective of the hospital
authorities as well as the from the point of view of the
patients. The author also highlighted that the invalid
configurations are the other type of threat to the network
architecture of the healthcare industry. The different types
of malicious attacks and data breaches are the other vital
threats to the networking architecture of the healthcare
industries. According to the author these threats have the
potential to seize and alter any type of essential data
which are circulated within the organization. The other
kind of threat involved in the networking architecture are
the switch spoofing and double tagging process. These
issues have a direct negative impact on the healthcare
network architecture. However, it was found that the
foremost restrictions of this resource are that the authors
were unsuccessful to focus on any specific hospital that
have already faced extreme adverse conditions due to the
malicious attacks or threats coming from the insiders
which could have authenticated their statements.
As stated by Zhang et al. (2015), malfunctioning of the
different modules of the healthcare network is the other
security issues in healthcare industry as the hospital
organization can get hugely affected by it. The other
threats of healthcare network architecture are the attacks
coming from the CDP and telnet. Fragmentation attacks
are the other types of attacks related to the networking
security of the healthcare industry. The main limitation of
this paper is that the statements are written mostly in
generalized form without any specifications.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN HEALTHCARE
NETWORKS
As discussed by Gope, Prosanta and Tzonelih (2016), the
extensive development in the field of information
technology has led to the growth of important
technologies which effectively help to main security in
the healthcare industries. The application of artificial
intelligence in the networking sector of the healthcare is
one of the most important recent development in the
healthcare industries. The author focused on the latest AI
based applications which provide a great deal of accuracy
in securing the hospital networks from the external
threats. The writer of this resource highlighted the use of
business intelligence is the other major type of
development in the health care network as it help the
hospital authorities to deal with the future securities issues
on their private networks. Cloud computing technology is
also increasingly used by the latest healthcare industries
which helps in the maintaining the privacy and security of
the healthcare networks. However, it was found that the
main limitations of this resource is that it do not discuss
the compatibility issues of the latest technologies with the
hospital authorities as it would have guided the other
hospitals who are planning to implement these
technologies on their environment.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SECURITY IN HEALTHCARE
NETWORKS
As stated by Bhatt, Nilanjan and Amira (2015), the
security in the healthcare network has to be taken special
care of for smooth conduction of all the complex
operations. The author stated that any type of security
related issues related to the healthcare network is very
much vital for the growth and development of the
organization. The writer of this resource said that the use
of the advanced sensory apparatus and instruments should
be practiced in all the healthcare industries as it will
enhance the security both from the point of view of the
patients as well as from the perspective of the internal and
external stakeholders of the hospital. The author also
stated that the latest health care industries generally use
different types of medical and non-medical devices for
different types of activities. The use of the electrical
ventilators are promoted into the healthcare industries in
the operation rooms. This paper is written beautifully by
the writers, balancing all the key points and each of them
are specified in details from different perspectives.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This unit of the paper will be analyzing the different types
of security issues of the healthcare network. The major
security issues related to the healthcare industries are the
phishing email, cyber security issues and the internal
threats. The internal threats are the most important among
the rest of the issues as it negatively affects the
organization, the privacy of the patients as well as the
networks [11]. The other types of threats of this
healthcare industry is the cyber security issues such as the
Wannacry ransomeware which affects the entire network
of the hospital authority. The attack coming from the
cyber security issues affects the entire industry and cause
a huge amount of financial loss of the hospital authorities.
The threats coming from the phishing emails also a source
of concern for the healthcare network [4]. The prime
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motive of the cyber criminals is to gain access to PHI.
The phishing emails provide a platform to the cyber
criminals so spread risks such as the ransomeware. False
identities are created using the help of the phishing emails
are those personal data are illegally used for different
activities by the criminals.
On the other hand, it can be said that using these methods
a computer system can be assessed for many months
without even getting notified, detection of impacted
systems is very much difficult for the hospital
authorizations [6]. One of the most important aspects of
these networks issues is that it can be used to change the
rules and regulations of the hospital authorities which will
be very much immoral from the point of view of their
sales and services which there were supposed to provide
to their clients.
Most of the major healthcare organization deals with
different types of non-governmental organization for
different types of purposes. It involves different vendors
who get themselves attached to the organization for
business purpose and are considered as one of the most
important factors of network security.
THREAT MITIGATION
This section of the paper will be focusing on the risk
mitigation strategy of wanna cry ransomeware, however it
needs to be understood that there is no actual preventive
measure of this cyber security issue [10]. The following
paragraph will be giving an idea about the different steps
which can be followed in order to minimize the chances
of getting infected from deadly malicious programs such
as the wanna cry ransomeware. The implementation of a
dedicated IT team in each department helps in
maintaining network security in the healthcare premises.
Ad blocking extensions should be enabled in each of the
computer systems which are connected to the network.
The practice of updating the latest versions of the
operating systems used in the healthcare industry as well
as updating the network based applications are very much
useful in containing or minimizing the issues which have
a direct negative impact on the organization.
Application of the complex alphanumeric passwords as
login credentials for each stakeholder of the healthcare
industry is one of the most important criteria regarding
the healthcare network security [8]. The data backup
processes in the healthcare industries should be frequently
practiced using the cloud computing applications. The
advanced cloud computing applications are used in the
risk migration strategies in different kinds of ways. All
the wireless communications which are installed and used
in the hospital premises should be disconnected if they are
not actively used. The attachments of the emails should
be properly scanned before downloading it into the
system as it will be helpful in preventing the cyber
security issues to a huge extent.
Reference
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