Protecting Healthcare’s Connected Devices from Cyber Threats Understanding how to secure your connected healthcare devices is crucial today. Integrating Internet of Things (IoT) devices has revolutionized patient care and operations in long-term and post-acute care facilities. However, it also presents unique cybersecurity challenges. This blog will discuss IoT in healthcare, highlighting its benefits, potential risks, and methods to safeguard your facility. The Good and the Risks of IoT in Healthcare The Benefits Improved Patient Care: IoT devices monitor vital signs, enabling quicker interventions and better patient outcomes. Smarter Operations: They optimize healthcare facility operations by tracking equipment and managing energy consumption. Enhanced Patient Experience: IoT personalizes care, enhancing the well-being and comfort of patients. For Healthcare Staff: Streamlined Workflows: IoT automates routine tasks, allowing staff to focus on quality care. Efficient Resource Management: Real-time tracking optimizes resource allocation, ensuring timely patient care. Enhanced Communication: IoT promotes seamless staff communication, improving collaboration and decision-making. The Risks: Security Gaps: IoT devices often have security weaknesses that cybercriminals can exploit. Privacy Concerns: Patient data collected by IoT devices can be compromised, violating privacy regulations. Network Overload: A surge of IoT devices can strain network bandwidth and lead to performance issues. Addressing Common Security Gaps in IoT Devices Crucial steps to address IoT device vulnerabilities include improving authentication, updating software, changing default credentials, and encrypting data during transmission. Ways to Secure Your Connected Devices in Healthcare Efficient network monitoring is vital for IoT ecosystem security and performance. Key measures include: Device Inventory: Maintain an updated list of all IoT devices, including make, model, and firmware versions. Anomaly Detection: Spot unusual device behavior to detect potential security breaches. Network Segmentation: Isolate IoT devices on separate network segments to limit access to critical systems. Setting Ground Rules: Security Policies for IoT Usage Clear security policies are essential to mitigate IoT-related risks. Key aspects include: Device Procurement Criteria: Define criteria for purchasing IoT devices to ensure they meet security and compliance standards. User Training: Educate staff on IoT device usage, security best practices, and incident reporting. Device Management Procedures: Outline device onboarding, updating, and decommissioning procedures. Trusting the Right Hands: Vendor Management for IoT Security Making smart vendor choices enhances your facility’s security. Important considerations include: Security Assessments: Evaluate vendors based on their cybersecurity commitment and update policies. Contractual Obligations: Specify security requirements in vendor contracts to hold them accountable for maintaining device security. In conclusion, embracing IoT devices in healthcare offers tremendous potential for patient care and operational efficiency. However, it’s crucial to address cybersecurity challenges by understanding the benefits and risks of IoT, securing devices, implementing network monitoring, setting security policies, and practicing vendor management. Always prioritize patient data safety and operational integrity. Stay vigilant, stay secure, and let’s make the most of IoT’s potential in healthcare.
Changes in Technology – How to Push Past Fear What in the world does “metathesiophobia” mean? Simply stated, this is the fear of change. The origin of the term is Greek, meta- meaning “change” and -phobos meaning “fear.” We all have fear of change on some level. It is and always evolving; and some of us, more than others, have inherited this trait through our genetics.When it comes to changes in technology – which we all know are constant – we generally experience two conflicting emotions: we feel excitement at the prospect of something new while simultaneously experiencing a feeling of resistance. We naturally resist change because we fear what we don’t know. Over the years, the evolution of technology has fueled this fear. Although we’ve seen many grand technological advances, we’ve also witnessed too many technology flops to count. This leaves us asking questions about every new technology on the market: What if it does not work? What if this change brings down my network? The list could go on and on indefinitely.Although it is natural, and even responsible, for IT staff to approach changes in their IT environment with caution, approaching it with fear is not necessary. Worrying about the “What ifs” in any circumstance may help avoid pitfalls, but results are only ever achieved once some level of risk is taken. The beautiful thing is that changing your IT environment doesn’t have to be scary; it can be exciting. It can be done with confidence. Working with IT Solution Providers, who in turn work with companies that have deep R&D budgets, can eliminate the fear associated with implementing new technologies. You can rest assured that the R&D has been done; in fact, manufactures like Hewlett Packard Enterprise test each new product to the limit, fix the bugs they find, and release to the public once they’re fully confident in the final outcome.Working with ProCern allows you the opportunity to demo IT products before you buy them. This means that not only can you be confident that the product or solution works, generally speaking, but you can be confident it will work in your environment. It allows you to see the pros and cons for yourself before you make a purchase decision.
Hybrid IT or Public Cloud? Recently, I had the privilege of attending a round table to talk about cloud computing and Hybrid IT. The discussion was to share information on where IT professionals were on their cloud journey within their organization and why companies make the jump to hybrid or public cloud. The attendees were mostly Director and “C” level executives with representation from almost every spectrum of business. Every stage of the cloud journey was represented. There were companies that have everything on premise and companies with 100% of their IT in the cloud. There were very small companies to some of the largest companies in Colorado, as well as local companies and international companies. It was a great cross representation and lead to some interesting conversations. What I found interesting was why some of these organizations had moved to the cloud and why some had not moved to the cloud. The discussion also arose on when the idea of Hybrid IT made the most sense for a company. There were a few that had a “Cloud First” approach to IT, but most people in the room agreed that Hybrid IT made the most sense. It really depended on the market and the size of the company. For example, if most of the IT requirements were remote (stores, etc.), the Cloud approach seemed to be prevalent. Larger companies and companies with high security requirements tended to lean more to the on premise or Hybrid approach. Almost everyone agreed that moving an application (Software as a Service) or setting up a DR site in the cloud is a good way to gain exposure into cloud computing. This is nothing new and has been going on for some time. Hybrid IT Option Hybrid IT is an approach to enterprise computing in which an organization provides and manages some information technology (IT) resources in-house but uses cloud-based services for others. Many customers have applications that will not or should not move to the cloud. The easy example is mainframe and high-end Unix systems that are unlikely going to move to the cloud. At least until the applications are replaced. Some of the attendees at this event were hesitant to move to the public cloud because of security and privacy concerns. While others had compliance regulations they must meet. These are valid concerns, and one the hybrid IT can help solve. While privacy and security should be of utmost concern, businesses still need to innovate. The Hybrid IT model can address both concerns. Enterprises that deal with confidential data need the flexibility the Public cloud provides. They have the ability to create a multi-tenant cloud within the hybrid model. This will segregate applications and resources from each other and can be further isolated with VLANs and additional encryption methods. Many businesses have found success using Hybrid IT models that allow them to keep full control over sensitive data, such as customer data or internal communications. They can keep data stored on-premise and readily accessible, while relegating less-sensitive data and workloads in the cloud. The added benefit of maintaining a hybrid solution with an on-premise data center is for disaster recovery and keeping private data out of the public pool. Hybrid IT is the ideal use of public and private resources that maximize cost-savings and productivity, and to minimize latency, privacy and security concerns.