KIT714 - Cybersecurity in Healthcare: Literature Review Assignment

This report presents a literature review focusing on cybersecurity within the healthcare industry. It addresses critical aspects such as the types of cyberattacks frequently targeting healthcare, the assets compromised during these attacks, and the methods employed by malicious actors. The review examines why healthcare facilities are attractive targets, highlighting vulnerabilities and the potential for significant impact. The analysis synthesizes findings from various research papers, identifying gaps in existing knowledge, particularly regarding effective mitigation strategies. The review explores the vulnerability of electronic healthcare technologies and medical devices, emphasizing the need for enhanced security measures. The ultimate goal is to understand the current landscape of cybersecurity threats in healthcare and to identify areas for future research, specifically in developing and implementing robust mitigation strategies.

Running had: CYBERSECURITY IN HEALTHCARE
Assignment 1: Literature Review
Topic: Cybersecurity in healthcare
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Findings of the Literature Review..............................................................................................2
References..................................................................................................................................4

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Research Questions
 What are the types of cyberattacks that the healthcare industry faces more often?
 What are compromised when a cyber attack occurs in the healthcare industry?
 How are the healthcare facilities targeted by the malicious attackers?
 Why do cyberattacks take place in the healthcare industry?
 What mitigation strategies can the healthcare industry use to either mitigate or
completely eliminate the possibility of cyber-attacks?
Findings of the Literature Review
Cyber-attacks are usually found to be occurring in cases of potential threats for
stealing money, intellectual property or even data but the destruction that is caused also has
an effect on the people on whom the attacks have been performed (Jashari et al. 2018).
Several authors and researched about the cybercrime as a universal challenge but on the
contrary to the authors Martin et al. 2017, have researched about the relationship between
cybercrime and its impact on healthcare industry. The author has put forward the idea of
healthcare services and how it can be impacted with cybercrime. The authors Mehraeen et al.
(2017), has mentioned how healthcare facilities have even larger possibility of being attacked
by cyber criminals than other industrial sectors since it is comparatively weaker in inheriting
the security postures. For example, the Information technology industry can be considered as
a well-equipped Industry that might have a cyber-attack but can recover well or even has the
ability to detect and stop cybercriminals from attacking the industry (Wazid et al. 2016).
However, the infrastructure of healthcare facilities is not inherited with the security services
for detecting cyber-attacks or even recovering from an occurrence of Cyber-attack.
According to author Alharam and El-Madany (2017), there are several statistical data
that would prove that how healthcare facilities are one of the most targeted sectors all around

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the World by the cyber criminals. It has been reported that over 81% of the organisation that
has been served with throughout the world, Has Fallen victim to Cybercrimes and more than
a hundred million patients all over United States alone has their data compromised a loan
within the year 2015 to 2016 (Kaur, Mourad and Banu 2019). It is also been found out by the
author through his research work that the cyber-attack that has been performed where in
capable of defending themselves.
From the statistical data the authors Shackelford et al. (2018), figured out that there
are probably to basic reasons why the cyber criminals find that extremely lucrative to attack
the healthcare facilities more than other industries.
As per the statement of the authors Abraham, Chatterjee and Sims (2019), electronic
healthcare technology is vulnerable to the cyber criminals and has a huge potential to be
exposed to the malicious cyber attackers. It is undeniable that these electronic healthcare
technologies can transform the clinical outcomes and improve the healthcare facilities but the
random reports about the cyber security breaches like ransomware attacks, health information
leaks and reaches on hospitals (Yüksel, Küpçü and Özkasap 2017). Even potential attacks on
medical devices have proven the fact that it the health care facilities are more vulnerable to
cyber-attacks than any other industry in the world.
Coventry and Branley (2018), stated that that there has been more breaches reported
in the media about the cyber security vulnerabilities in healthcare than any other industries as
they are mostly exploited by the cyber criminals been one of the most software sectors to
target for hacking, Malware attacks and inside threats on the electronic healthcare devices.
Gap in the findings
The gap that has been identified by going through the papers is that all these papers
have categorically figured out about the security attacks in the healthcare industry. It has also

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found the different ways of cyberattacks that has occurred in the healthcare industry and why
this industry is considered as a soft target by the cyber attackers. However, there has been no
information about the mitigation strategies that the healthcare industry has taken to mitigate
or eliminate the risks. This can be considered as a area of research to find out what steps can
be taken for the healthcare industry.

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References
Abraham, C., Chatterjee, D. and Sims, R.R., 2019. Muddling through cybersecurity: Insights
from the US healthcare industry. Business horizons, 62(4), pp.539-548.
Alharam, A.K. and El-Madany, W., 2017, May. The Effects of Cyber-Security on healthcare
Industry. In 2017 9th IEEE-GCC Conference and Exhibition (GCCCE) (pp. 1-9). IEEE.
Coventry, L. and Branley, D., 2018. Cybersecurity in healthcare: a narrative review of trends,
threats and ways forward. Maturitas, 113, pp.48-52.
Jashari, A., Qehaja, B., Berisha, D. and Krasniqi, G., 2018. Privacy and Security Data
communications issues in HealthCare Ecosystem.
Kaur, C., Mourad, H.M. and Banu, S.S., 2019. Security and Challenges using Clouds
Computing in Healthcare Management System.
Martin, G., Martin, P., Hankin, C., Darzi, A. and Kinross, J., 2017. Cybersecurity and
healthcare: how safe are we?. Bmj, 358, p.j3179.
Mehraeen, E., Ghazisaeedi, M., Farzi, J. and Mirshekari, S., 2017. Security Challenges in
Healthcare Cloud Computing: A Systematic. Global Journal of Health Science, 9(3).
Shackelford, S.J., Mattioli, M., Myers, S., Brady, A., Wang, Y. and Wong, S., 2018. Securing
the Internet of Healthcare. Minn. JL Sci. & Tech., 19, p.405.
Wazid, M., Zeadally, S., Das, A.K. and Odelu, V., 2016. Analysis of security protocols for
mobile healthcare. Journal of medical systems, 40(11), p.229.
Yüksel, B., Küpçü, A. and Özkasap, Ö., 2017. Research issues for privacy and security of
electronic health services. Future Generation Computer Systems, 68, pp.1-13.