How to keep citizens’ health records safe

Mobile apps, sensors and cloud - all of these that help improve patient care could also open the doors to new vulnerabilities to citizens.

Electronic health records sometimes include crucial financial and employment information. Criminals can use this to find suitable victims for online scams and frauds.

Research by IBM estimates that medical images are the fastest growing health data source.

“Criminals can combine the knowledge gleaned from these images with the other data they find in medical records to custom-tailor their scams or attacks”, it says.

So where should governments put their money to protect patients? There are four key areas they should prioritise, a report by IBM Security says:

• Employ a full-time official to steer security strategy and budget
• Build a dynamic incident response plan and retrain staff
• Monitor and test medical devices for weaknesses
• Encrypt and segregate patient data at all times

If you like to know more about how IBM Security can help protect patients, download the full report below: