Risks in Healthcare IT Essay

The current world has been subjected to immense technological developments and innovations that have improved the quality of life. The change has compelled most organizations to integrate their management practices with information systems. Healthcare systems are inherently great examples of institutions that have embraced the shift hopping that they will be able to improve the quality of healthcare services that they provide to their patients. However, studies have proved that the transition has not been entirely secure. The change in the nature of cyber-attacks requires that healthcare organizations should have comprehensive knowledge about some of the proven measures that they can implement to protect their networks, computer devices and even data. Risks in Healthcare IT Essay

Privilege abuse, stolen assets and consequently miscellaneous errors are the top three areas that are affected by incidences that affect healthcare systems. Consequently, security vulnerabilities make these areas to be susceptible to risks for various reasons. For instance, most hospitals lack risks mitigation measures in place. Thus for the case of privilege abuse, unauthorized parties are likely to gain access into network systems or computer devices because they have not been authenticated by passwords. It is easy to justify that the few hospitals that use passwords authentication do not follow the right password creation procedures. That means that other than using weak passwords that are comprised of letters or numbers only, these hospitals do not apprehend the consent of changing the passwords frequently to prevent the possibilities of security breaches. For the case of stolen assets, it is unfortunate that a majority of hospital managements do not see the sense of setting up physical security measures. Risks in Healthcare IT Essay

The few healthcare institutions that have physical security are either having incompetent security personnel or have a small number of security personnel who can barely guarantee the safety of the entire hospital setups. Hospitals are also susceptible to privilege of abuse because a majority of them do not have proper data security procedures. That means that people who are not authorized to have access to critical systems such as databases systems can go beyond their legal privilege to manipulate data that belongs to the healthcare institutions. In addition to that, most healthcare set ups are also susceptible to issue of miscellaneous errors because of open networks or network that has holes. The vulnerability makes it easier for the hackers and other groups of unauthorized persons to access the network and implant malware that can manipulate data leading to miscellaneous errors.Risks in Healthcare IT Essay

There are a number of recent breaches that can be used to show that the implication of a security breach. For instance, in a study that was conducted by Verizon, it was noted that approximately 32% of all security incidents that are encountered in healthcare setups are inherently stolen assets. That means that devices such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets and even flash drives are either misplaced or stolen. The statistic is worrying bearing in mind that important piece of information and data could be lost with the devices. To make matters worse, the cost of replacing these devices are high thereby causing financial inconveniences to the affected individuals. As illustrated in one article in HealthIT Security, a laptop belonging to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles got lost last year from a vehicle. The theft was a major blow to the hospital’s management because the laptop had information belonging to about 3,600 patients.Risks in Healthcare IT Essay