The war in Ukraine has been accompanied by talk of a growing cybersecurity threat. Electronic health records (EHRs), data sharing, telehealth and ICT have become common in healthcare, making the field more interdependent, and hackers have increasingly targeted healthcare organisations.
In February, one day after the invasion of Ukraine, the American Hospital Association issued a warning about potential cyber threats from Russia, stating that hospitals could be directly targeted or become collateral damage in a malware attack. For Dr Sabina Magalini, a senior surgeon of emergency trauma at the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, the nature of the threat has changed, moving away from individuals seeking financial gain. “The intent now is not to do ransomware but it is to do harm,” she said.
Magalini, who was recently involved in an EU-funded cybersecurity project called Panacea, says that healthcare professionals are busy, and IT departments work in different siloes from their medical colleagues. While medicine increasingly relies on digitisation and AI, cyber-hygiene is uneven, she explained. “I always say, if you were working in a nuclear power plant, maybe you would be more compliant with the requirements. Working in healthcare, cybersecurity is not your chief focus.”
Putting patient lives at risk
A system failure in healthcare can be catastrophic. The Irish healthcare system lost access to phone and email communications after a ransomware attack last May, when a staff member opened ..
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