Cybersecurity Threats and Mitigation in Australian Healthcare

This case study investigates the increasing cyber threats faced by the Australian healthcare sector, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyzes the threats, including demographic changes, rising medical costs, and cybercrime, and identifies key assets such as people, processes, data, and networking. The report prioritizes threats against each asset and examines fundamental security principles, such as limiting access, diversity, and layering, in relation to eight security mitigation and control recommendations proposed by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). The study highlights the importance of implementing these measures to reduce cyber attack risks and protect sensitive patient information. The conclusion emphasizes the need for continuous adaptation and proactive security strategies to safeguard the healthcare sector from evolving cyber threats.

Case study

ntroduction
Cyber crime is increasing on a rapid basis through use of internet which generates threats to
the health care sectors. According to Australian Cyber Security Centre also known as ACSC it
has been identified that Advanced Persistent Threat actors are actively targeting the healthcare as
well as medical research facilities. In reference to the situation of COVID-19 where the world is
facing negative situation, health care professionals and sector are the one who continuously
contribute there share. In this report a discussion is going to be made on the threats faced by
Australian health sector organizations, along with this different types of assets are also going to
be identified. Furthermore, there are eight security mitigation are given which needs to be
understand in detail manner so that health care sector will be able to reduce the threat of cyber
attack.
Main Body
Identify and examine all sort of threats which is being faced by the Australian Health sector
organizations.
Each and every sector have their own challenges and threats which might affect their overall
functioning in adverse way. In the present context of Australian health care sector, it has been
identified that there are various types of challenges faced by them due to continues growing of
chronic disease, workforce pressures, ageing population,unacceptable inequities within health
outcomes as well as cyber crime which is one of the most common threat faced by them in
today’s world. There are some sort of threats faced by Australian Health care sector which are
going to be discussed as follows.
 One of the biggest threat which is faced by Australian health care sector is continuously
changing in the demographic elements rise in chronic illness. Increase in population, age
group, eating habits are one of the biggest threat.
 Another threat is that the cost of medical advances is increasing rapidly, due to
advancement in diseases it is required to adopt new technologies which are highly
advanced and innovative. This is considered as a biggest threat because it require lot of
investment and if another research center develop the vaccine or medicine then it
becomes difficult for them to remain in the competition.

 Apart from this, in the current era where internet is the most common and essential thing
which is used by each and every individual as well as health care organization. Apart
from the benefits there are some threats which affect the whole functionality in a negative
manner. Increase in cyber crime rate creates threat for the Australian health care sector as
people hack the computer system by using their network. For this, there are some security
measures which are developed by the ACSC so that they can avoid such threat.
Identification as well as categories assets, including all the factors of an organization system.
Each organization is developed by including various living and non living assets which assist them in
order to attain their organizational goals and objectives. Similarly, in context of health care sector there
are some specific sort which work as the asset for the organization and leads towards the attainment of
their targets and goals in an effective manner. Some of these assets are people, data, information,
procedure, hardware, software, networking and many more. These assets are usually help organization as
well as health care industry in order to easily perform their all their functions and operations so they will
be able to attain their predefined targets. These elements are going to be discussed in detail manner as
follows:
People:Also known as the staff members or medical professionals who are one of the main assets ofthe
healthcare sector. These are the one who are mainly considered as one of the most essential as well as
useful asset and help in providing services to the people in an effective manner. It is necessary for the
management team to retain their potential people so they can assist them in future.
Process: Another asset is the process through which the whole services is provided by the medical staff or
health care professionals to their patients. There must be a systematic process for each disease which
needs to be followed by the medical professionals while providing services or while developing any kind
of new medicines. This will assist them in order to gain positive outcomes within stipulated time frame.
Networking:Another element which is known as the asset for health care sector is networking. Reason
behind this is that, in context of health care organization there must be proper networking between each
and every person so they can easily perform all their functions in an effective manner. These networking
between every stage help in providing high quality services to their patients in an appropriate way.
Data and information: Apart from this, data and information are the another essential asset for the health
care sector as it is very necessary for the health care professionals to have sufficient knowledge about the
issues and diseases of patient before providing them treatment. This will assist them in order to give
accurate and required treatment so that they will be able to enhance the well being of patients.

Therefore, it has been concluded that above stated all the elements are considered as the assets for an
organization where by taking all these elements in account leads towards the success and accomplishment
of goals and targets in an effective and appropriate manner.
Identify and priorities threats against each sort of assets. Demonstrate the way followed to
prioritize threats with justification.
Above mentioned factors are the main elements which assist an organization or healthcare sector in
order to perform all their functions and operation in an effective manner. All these assets have some sort
of threats linked with each other which affects the whole performance and functionality of these elements
in an adverse manner. These threats needs to be considered by the healthcare professionals so that they
can reduce the negative impact and gain possible favorable outcomes.
People: Threat related to this asset is that if a person get better opportunity or growth in another
organization then they will left the business entity. This will highly affect the business operations of the
healthcare sector, therefore it becomes necessary for the management team to provide better growth
opportunities and retain them for a longer period of time by giving them various benefits.
Process: There is continuous change in the requirements of people therefore, it is necessary to modify the
process on a regular basis according to the situation so that they will be able to reduce the impact of
threat. Due to highly advanced technology process of providing treatment increases which leads towards
the threat as if a health care institution is unable to adopt the technology within time frame.
Networking: Threat faced by healthcare professionals in term of networking is that if there is any person
who is unable to perform its work in a right manner then it will leads towards negative impact. Therefore,
it is necessary for the management team to keep an eye on the whole networking process on a day to day
basis so that there must not be any kind of issues faced by them while giving treatment to their patients.
Data and information: It is very essential to have authentic information and data before offering
treatment to the patients and the threat related to this is that if the sources from which information are
gathered is not authentic then there must be chances of getting wrong treatment. For eliminating such
situation it is necessary for the healthcare professionals to identify the resources and gather all the
information from authentic sources so that they will be able to provide better facility and services to their
patients.

In general, security defenses should be based on five fundamental security principles. Examine
these principles with the eight security mitigation and control recommendations proposed by the
ACSC for health sector. In the analysis, demonstrate how each recommended mitigation or
control methods are related to the fundamental security principles with valid justification.
There are mainly five main types of fundamental principles of security
which provides the base to security defence. The main principles among them are
specified as below:
Limiting: In this principle, access to information is provided to limited
number of people which directly reduces it threat against them. Here, it can be said
that technological based and several other forms are acknowledged as the core
principles which maintains limited access among the users.
Diversity: This principle clearly depicts that the layers are required to be
different at each level. This simply means that if the attacker attacks several times
with the same technology then they cannot use the same trick for cracking the
different layer each time.
Obscurity: An example of obscurity would be not revealing the type of
computer, operating system, software, and network connection a computer uses–
An attacker who knows that information can more easily determine the weaknesses
of the system to attack it.
Layering: The developed information is required to be created in layers.
Here, it can be said that the security stream is required to have more number of
layers as compared to the security systems because it makes difficulty for the
attackers to break all layers one after another. It also contributes in resisting the
several attacks.
Simplicity: It is highly important to maintain information security quite
complex at several areas. Along with this, it can be further said that due to complex
security system it became difficult for the attackers to crack the information
security in single or very few number of attacks.
Apart from this, few recommendations which have been provided with the
motive of mitigating cyber security issues in negative manner. The main eight
ways of mitigating cyber issues are Enabling multi-factor authentication,
Implementing regular patching of systems and applications, Implement additional
security controls, Block macros, implementing regular patching of systems and

applications, Making regular back-ups of critical systems and databases,
Implement additional security controls, Alert and Develop/update incident
response plans educate staff, Implementing network segmentation and
segregation, Cyber incident reporting and many others. Here, it can be said that by
acquiring any of these ways individual can easily keep themselves away from
getting security false in any reasons.
Away with this it can be said that all of these mitigation methods are highly
different from one another as somehow thanked with the principles of fundamental
security. Therefore, it is highly important for the practitioners to emphasise on
adopting best method which is suitable for their business zone.
Conclusion
With the assistance of above stated information, it has been concluded that there are ample number
of threats faced by Australian Healthcare sector which affect their overall functioning in adverse way.
These threats arise due to use of internet where cyber crime is increasing rapidly where research team as
well as medical organization face huge threat related to misuse of these research. It has also been said that
there are various sort of assets included within business system which highly influence the overall
outcome in both positive and negative way. Furthermore, it has also been identified that there are eight
mitigation related to security of the healthcare sector are given which implemented in an effective manner
create positive results.

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