CHECK Berlin #4

DIGITAL
Interview: Ernesto Klews
ENGLISH
Foto: Przemek Klos_stock.adobe.com
HOW SAFE IS MY
DATA?
Cybercrime in healthcare
The digitization of the health system is in full swing: online appointments, health
apps and even video chats with the doctor are already standard today. But what
about protecting our data? We‘re talking to cyber protection expert Mike Amelang.
Hello Mr. Amelang. How high is the risk of
cybercrime in the health sector?
It is assumed that hundreds of thousands of
attacks and similar threat scenarios occur on
the net every minute. This also applies to practice
and pharmacist computers, of course. They
take place with the most varied of intentions
and force. You can protect yourself against
this by having a good virus program, making
regular updates, using the latest software and
hardware and being well-insured in the event
of damage. The danger of a fallout a health
system faces in the event that their system
is breached increases as essential services
continue to be digitalized. It‘s just a matter of
time before something happens.
How does it work? Are there fifteen-year-old
hackers sitting somewhere and swapping patients‘
medications in a Berlin doctor‘s office?
It does happen. If you look at the careers of
hackers, you will find many interesting aspects.
It often starts with young technology-savvy
people wanting to make their mark with initial
attacks and hacking attempts. There are even
some sort of rankings and job postings for certain
cyber crimes you can advertise on the darknet.
However, the greatest danger comes from
automated attacks. Systems are automatically
searched for security gaps. That is one of the
most important reasons why you need to make
sure you regularly install the latest updates.
Another form of cybercrime stems from laid-off
or dissatisfied employees who take lots of patient
or customer data with them and then pass
them on to third parties. In such a situation,
doctors and pharmacists can be blackmailed
because they no longer have data sovereignty.
Here you can protect yourself by having your
employees sign the guidelines for the protection
of patient data. The employee can then take
this data with him, but is liable to prosecution.
This clearly shows that it is important to have a
professional data protection strategy. Leaflets
74 CHECK | AUSGABE 4