Cybersecurity and the Digital Health: An Investigation on the State of the Art and the Position of the Actors

Dear Colleagues,

The strong demand for health data by cybercrime exposes hospital structures in particular to IT risks. The greater connectivity to existing IT networks has in fact exposed Administrations to new IT security vulnerabilities, as healthcare is an extremely interesting target for cybercrime for two fundamental reasons: on the one hand, it is a source rich in valuable data and on the other, very often, the defenses are weak. Data breach violations can be caused by accidental events (e.g., loss of a USB stick or unregulated access to data) or malicious, and can result in the theft of health information, attacks of ransomware to hospitals, denial of service attacks and attacks on implanted medical devices (such as pace-makers  or artificial pancreas) which can reduce patient confidence, paralyze health systems and threaten human life. Ultimately, cybersecurity is critical to patient safety, but has often been underestimated. This requires cyber security to become an integral part of patient safety through changes in human behavior, technology and processes as part of a holistic solution. Also because we must not forget that the health system is a complex system in which multiple factors, heterogeneous and dynamic, interact, including the plurality of health services, specialist skills and professional, technical-health and economic-administrative roles and the heterogeneity of the processes and results to be achieved. In general, the approach and sensitivity towards cybersecurity is taking place at different speeds, even in countries with high evolution as regards digital health, also based on the way health services are provided. Where health services are approached as an industry, like in the USA, there has been a faster response to the  cyber risks.

I invite you to contribute to this issue which has a broad spectrum ranging from the security of wearable microsystems to that of fixed networks; from the artificial wearable pancreas up to the Hospital net.

This Special Issue of Healthcare seeks commentaries, original research, short reports, and reviews on challenges in health systems focused in this field.

Dr. Daniele Giansanti
Guest Editor

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