1
VULNERABILITIES TO CYBER ATTACKS IN AUSTRALIA’S HEALTHSCOPE
MEDICAL COMPANY
Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Submission Date
2
Abstract
Rigid cyber security is an important component of our prosperity and development in an
international world. Also, it is fundamental for our nationwide safety. It necessitates partnership
comprising governments, private sectors and society. Having a network connection is nowadays
fundamental, developing new open doors for growth and innovation for every Australian citizen.
To become competitive, companies required being connected. However, this likewise brings
dangers. Australian nation is growingly the target region in favor of espionage and cybercrime.
Everybody—individuals, businesses, and governments—require collaborating to create
resilience toward cybersecurity threats as well as capitalize on prospects online. The main aim of
this paper is to examine and provide a detailed report about the present state with regards to
Healthscope, medical provider company based in Australia and provide recommendations for
improvement. The suggestions can be adopted by the company to enhance its medical
information privacy. I managed to work in Australian health sector in and this report is as a result
of my experience regarding information security of the company.
Introduction
The healthcare system can’t deliver safe and effectual care with no strong digital
network. In the event that the healthcare system has connectivity; however, not secure, this
network might betray the safety of patients, presenting them toward needless risks and
compelling them into paying high-priced personal expenditures. Australia ought to set up
measures aimed at preventing it patients or clients from getting obliged to select between
security and connectivity.
In 2015s Cybersecurity Act, Australian Legislature launched the HCIC (Healthcare
Industry Cybersecurity) commission to deal with the issues the healthcare industry experiences
3
when protecting and securing itself from cybersecurity attacks, whether unintentional or
intentional. Actual examples of cyber attack ransomware along with targeted state-nation
hacking confirm that Australian healthcare information is at risk. Data gathered to benefit
patients/clients and employed for developing new prescriptions may be applied for evil purposes
like scam, identity theft, production network obstructions, the robbery of R&D, and inventory
manipulation. Above all, cybersecurity attack can disrupt care of patients as shown below:
Figure 1: Healthscope Cyber Security Environment
Healthscope is a mixture, comprising of extremely gigantic medical systems, single
doctor practices, private and public payers, R&D institutions, healthcare device designers
alongside software corporations, and a varied and extensive patient populaces. Covered above
this includes the environment of finely-intentioned central government policies
4
that may impede dealing with problems crosswise over jurisdictions. That makes the capability
to create obstacles to novelty and accessibility. Inside this multifarious network, the sick ought to
be safeguarded from injuries that might originate from cyber security exploits and
vulnerabilities.
Now in particular, Healthscope has greater responsibilities to protect its system, medical
machines, and data of patients. The Australian healthcare organization faces huge resource
shortcomings because operating margins might be less than 1%t. Australian healthcare
organization can’t manage to uphold internal data security workforce, or allocate an IT employee
with cyber security as collateral task. Healthscope usually has no facilities to track and identify
threats, capability to break down and convert the perilous data received to actionable statistics,
and capacity to respond based on this information). Healthscope also has not traversed the
electronic wall in failing to get the hi-tech assets and skills to deal with existing and rising cyber
security risks. Healthscope might not recognize it has encountered attacks till many hours after
its occurrence. In addition, Healthscope struggles with many unsupported heritage systems
which can’t effortlessly be substituted (operating systems, software, and hardware) with huge
volumes of risks and fewer up-to-date countermeasures. Healthscope will require dramatically
reducing the utilization of less secure heritage and unproven goods, and effectively reducing
threat in upcoming products via strong support and development strategies.
With exclusion of information technology security staff, Healthscope typically trust that
IT connectivity and tools they use function effectively and also its cyber security vulnerability
level is lower. Latest high profile happenings, like ransomware attack and across-the-board
privacy infringements, have proved this assumption of vulnerability as being bogus and created a
way for increasing awareness and education regarding the advantages of cyber security in
5
healthcare society. Furthermore, latest ransomware happenings have too underscored how
patient medication at Healthscope organization can get obstructed because of comprising the
system.
Agents of Healthscope said that before these infringements numerous security experts
had trouble explaining the essentialness of computer protections toward organizational
management or leadership, involving how mitigating risk can avoid money misuse and safeguard
against image destruction in general. Settling on the choice to consider cybersecurity first in the
healthcare sector needs culture changes and improve communication from and to leadership, and
shifts in how the company performs its errands in hospital setting.
Thus, healthcare cyber security is an important community health interest that requires
