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The Identification and Prevention of Cybercrime in Healthcare Industry

The identification and prevention of cybercrime in the

healthcare industry.
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The Identification and Prevention of Cybercrime in Healthcare Industry

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to investigate cybercrime in the healthcare industry. The

researcher is focused on identifying and preventing cybercrime in the healthcare industry.

Cybercrime affects the healthcare industry in many ways. However, there is an

underinvestment in the healthcare industry to prevent cybercrime. Therefore, this paper

focuses on identifying safety measures that could be adopted to protect the system of the

healthcare organization. The researcher will apply a qualitative research design to complete

the study and satisfy the objectives of the paper. The paper will involve secondary data that

would be collected from peer-review papers based on cybercrime in the healthcare industry.

Moreover, the thematic analysis technique will be used to analyze the collected data and

interpret the findings.

Table of Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................4
Aims and Objectives..........................................................................................................................4
Scope of study...................................................................................................................................5
The rationale of study........................................................................................................................5
Literature Review..................................................................................................................................5
Theoretical Framework/Approach.........................................................................................................6
Research Design & Method...................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................9
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The Identification and Prevention of Cybercrime in Healthcare Industry

Introduction

Cybercrime is one of the key risk factors in the healthcare industry. Data breaches in the

healthcare industry cost more than $5.6 billion every year. According to Becker’s hospital

review, in 2016, every day an average of one data breach occurred in the healthcare industry

that affected the records of more than 27 million patients (Nivarthi & Akhilesh, 2020). Health

IT advisor organization Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange has reported that

cybercrimes are increasingly becoming difficult to recognize, prevent, as well as mitigate. It

has also been identified that there is an underinvestment in cybersecurity in the healthcare

industry that keeps healthcare organizations exposed to cybercriminals. Due to

underinvestment in cybersecurity, many healthcare organizations are even not able to detects

cyberattacks when they occur (Mrcela & Vuletic, 2018). Therefore, it is very important to

implement effective measures within the organization with the help of which the organization

can detect cyberattacks and take appropriate steps to prevent them.

Aims and Objectives

This paper aims to study the vulnerabilities of the healthcare industry to cybercrime along

with identifying preventive measures that could be implemented to prevent cyberattacks in

the healthcare industry. The paper will examine the extent to which cybercrimes affect

healthcare organizations. The paper will address how healthcare organizations can prevent

themselves from one of the greatest risks.

Objectives

The paper intends to achieve the following objectives.

 To analyze the impact of cybercrime on the healthcare industry

 To identify the tactics to prevent cybercrime in the healthcare industry

Scope of the study

The paper will help in identifying the degree of vulnerability of healthcare organizations to

cybercrime. It will help in identifying the causes of vulnerability within the organization.

Hence, it would be easier for the organization to take appropriate action in a particular

situation to prevent cybercrime. Apart from this, the paper will help in identifying key

preventive measures that could be adopted or implemented by the organization to prevent

cybercrimes and safeguard the organizational system as well as data.

The rationale of the study

The paper is important for healthcare organizations because, with the help of this paper, they

can analyze and understand the importance of ensuring cybersecurity within the organization.

The paper will make healthcare organizations aware of how they can prevent cybercrime to

protect their confidential as well as important data from intruders. Moreover, the study will

also help them review their security measures and strengthen them to safeguard the crucial

information and patients’ record.

Literature Review

According to Martin et al., 2017) the importance of the healthcare industry in the life of every

individual is known to everyone. This sector is very crucial to maintain the health condition

of people. If the health sector is not efficient and effective, the health condition of people

would be poor. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that the efficiency, as well as the

effectiveness of the healthcare sector, is high. There are several factors that affect the

efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare sector. Cybercrime is one of the key factors that

have a significant impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.

Compromising data of the healthcare sector may be very disastrous for patients. Hence, it is
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The Identification and Prevention of Cybercrime in Healthcare Industry

important to protect the system of the healthcare organization against cybercrime to safeguard

the crucial data of patients.

The Healthcare sector provides life-critical services by providing effective treatment as well

as patient care. The demand for healthcare services is increasing with the passage of time. It

is also important to consider that the growing world population is also responsible for the

high demand for healthcare services. So, in order to meet the growing demand for healthcare

services, healthcare organizations are increasingly adopting new technologies. The adoption

of technologies makes the organization vulnerable to cybercrime (Yadav et al., 2021).

Therefore, while adopting new technologies, the organization should also focus on ensuring

that crucial cybersecurity measures are adopted.

According to Pitoglou et al., 2020 there are several measures that a healthcare organization

should adopt. First of all, the organization should make every individual within the

organization aware of cybercrime and how cybercriminals infiltrate into the organizational

system. Making employees aware of cybercrime is very important because when they are

aware of cybercrime, they can take appropriate steps to prevent cybercrime. Apart from this,

the organization should focus on restricting access to data and applications. The credential

should be given to only authorized persons. Two-factor authentication is a key step that can

prevent unauthorized access. Encrypting data is also a very important step to safeguard the

system. Moreover, the organization should also conduct a regular risk assessment in order to

identify weak points or vulnerable points so that preventive measures can be adopted to

safeguard the system.

Theoretical Framework/Approach

Realism theory of international relations emphasizes the role of states and assumes that all

states are motivated by national interest as well as a moral concern. National interest deals
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The Identification and Prevention of Cybercrime in Healthcare Industry

with political autonomy and territorial integrity. All states focus on preserving their political

autonomy along with ensuring territorial integrity (Craig & Valeriano, 2018). However,

national interest is not limited to political economy and territorial integrity. When these two

interests are met, the national interest takes other forms.

Cybercrime has a threat to national interest and hence it is important to focus on protecting

national interest by eliminating the threat of cybercrime. The proliferation of information and

communication technologies has made cyber security a major concern for everyone. It may

cause financial loss to businesses through cybercrime (Maurer, 2020). Apart from this,

cybercrime also creates challenges for the economic and national securities across the world.

Therefore, cyberspace is considered to be the fifth domain of warfare. Realism can be applied

to deal with the challenge of cybercrime as it has the potential to safeguard the interest of the

nation. It defines the appropriate behavior of the state that should be demonstrated by the

state to protect the national and economic interests. It advocates that every country should

have policies and legislations to cater to cyber security concerns. The state should always be

prepared for dealing with cybersecurity concerns and provide a sense of safety to the people

of the country (Beveridge, 2020). Apart from this, realism also advocates that all countries of

the world should move in a common direction to fight against one of the biggest concerns of

the world. There should be international policies to counter cybercrime or cyber terrorism.

Research Design & Method

The qualitative research design will be used by the researcher in this paper to accomplish the

study effectively and efficiently. The qualitative research design will be used because it

allows the researcher to gain in-depth knowledge about the topic in question (Cardano, 2020).

Therefore, using this research design, the researcher will investigate several aspects of
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The Identification and Prevention of Cybercrime in Healthcare Industry

cybercrime that would help in developing and determining the security measures to protect

the system from intruders.

The paper will involve secondary data that would be collected from peer-review papers. The

researcher will select a wide range of peer-reviewed papers based on cybersecurity in the

healthcare industry to gather relevant data. The collected data will be analyzed using the

thematic analysis technique.

Conclusion

Cybercrime is a very serious issue for the healthcare industry because it affects healthcare

organizations severely. Due to cybercrime, healthcare organizations spend millions of dollars

every year. Apart from this, it also affects the efficiency and effectiveness of the

organization. More importantly, cybercrime compromises patients’ data that may affect them

severely. Therefore, it is important to protect the systems of healthcare organizations. There

are several preventive measures such as making employees aware of cybercrime and

precautionary measures so that they can use appropriate steps to prevent the system.
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The Identification and Prevention of Cybercrime in Healthcare Industry

References

Beveridge, R. (2020). Effectiveness of Increasing Realism Into Cybersecurity Training.

International Journal of Cyber Research and Education (IJCRE), 2(1), 40-54.

Cardano, M. (2020). Defending qualitative research: Design, analysis, and textualization.

Routledge.

Craig, A. J., & Valeriano, B. (2018). Realism and Cyber Conflict: Security in the Digital

Age. Realism in Practice, 85.

Martin, G., Martin, P., Hankin, C., Darzi, A., & Kinross, J. (2017). Cybersecurity and

healthcare: how safe are we? Bmj, 358.

Maurer, T. (2020). A Dose of Realism: The Contestation and Politics of Cyber Norms. Hague

Journal on the Rule of Law, 12(2), 283-305.

Mrcela, M., & Vuletic, I. (2018). Healthcare, Privacy, Big Data, and Cybercrime: which one

is the weakest link? Annals Health L., 27, 257.

Nivarthi, C. P., & Akhilesh, K. B. (2020). Cybercafe—Role of Cyber Security in Healthcare

Industry. In Smart Technologies (pp. 291-304). Springer, Singapore.

Pitoglou, S., Giannouli, D., Costarides, V., Androutsou, T., & Anastasiou, A. (2020).

Cybercrime and Private Health Data: Review, Current Developments, and Future

Trends. Encyclopedia of Criminal Activities and the Deep Web, 763-787.

Yadav, H., Gautam, S., Rana, A., Bhardwaj, J., & Tyagi, N. (2021). Various Types of

Cybercrime and Its Affected Area. In Emerging Technologies in Data Mining and

Information Security: Proceedings of IEMIS 2020, Volume 3 (pp. 305-315). Springer

Singapore.
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The Identification and Prevention of Cybercrime in Healthcare Industry