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JUNE 12, 2020 | OPINION | The Indian Eye 37

nario, medical equipment can vestigation (FBI) thereafter is- With the allocation of funds staff lacks the necessary securi-
completely be overridden by at- sued a warning about Kwampirs in the 2019 union budget for the ty know-how to implement up-
tackers, limiting hospitals from (a backdoor Trojan that grants Ayushman Bharat Yojana, de- dates and patches promptly, and
providing vital life-saving treat- remote computer access to veloping the healthcare sector many medical devices lack secu-
ment to patients. the attackers) malware target- is a top priority. Meanwhile, to rity software altogether. Human
In the backdrop of ing supply chains including the ensure better coverage for the error opens a hole in systems as
COVID-19, many healthcare healthcare industry. healthcare initiative, the Minis- most breaches are triggered by
organisations have seen an in- try of Health has issued a critical employee mistakes or unautho-
crease in cyber exploitation. Ac- india and digital healthcare document for public consulta- rised disclosures. Experts note
cording to a report, the cyber- India has not been very tion to completely digitalise the that hospitals often do not know
attacks in the healthcare sector far behind in riding the digital healthcare data, and create a what systems run on the devices
increased by 150 per cent during wave. In 2017, the union cabi- national digital health network they use. Many of these devices
January-February 2020 as crimi- net approved the formulation of called National Digital Health are black boxes to hospitals as
nals sought to take advantage of National Health Policy, under Blueprint. This would help there is a general lack of aware-
the system vulnerabilities during which a National e-Health Au- deliver value-added services ness, besides the usual lack of
the crisis. Scams by grey-mar- thority (NeHA) is to be setup. to the concerned users with a resources. Without a multi-lay-
keters for personal protective Such a policy would evolve and consent-based flow of citizen’s ered protective cyber ecosys-
equipment (PPE) have also expand health information net- health record. tem, the medical staff may not
seen a steady rise as healthcare works across the continuum of India is committed to fi- even know when they are under
professionals remain short of care, such as e-Health, m-Health, nancially support all the dig- attack.
critical supplies. and cloud technology and IoT ital initiatives and looks for India is at the cusp of digital
On March 13, 2020, one in healthcare delivery. Major IT multi-stakeholder engagement transformation. However, with
of the Czech Republic’s big- initiatives include ‘India Fights and private-public partnerships digital threats becoming trick-
gest testing laboratories, Brno Dengue’ mobile app which pro- to scale up these initiatives. ier, a more holistic approach
University Hospital, was hit by vides interactive information on Even under the current crisis, towards cybersecurity would be
a cyberattack. As a result, the the identification of symptoms the government has rolled out needed to facilitate the creation
hospital had to postpone ur- and links users to the nearest apps such as Aarogya Setu to of a vibrant digital healthcare
gent surgical interventions and hospitals and blood banks. The help citizens identify the risk environment. If going digital is
transfer patients with acute con- Swasth Bharat (Healthy India) of contracting COVID-19 and necessary for the country to be
ditions to a different hospital app provides information on AYUSH Sanjivani to spread on par with the digital world,
while shutting down their entire healthy lifestyle, disease con- awareness about traditional then building a resilient and
IT network. Similarly, the web- ditions and their symptoms, Ayurvedic medicines. trusted cyber ecosystem is also a
site of Champaign-Urbana Pub- treatment options, and first necessity.
lic Health District in the United aid and public health alerts. way forward
States was attacked by new ran- The Ministry of Health and Going digital is the most Kritika Roy is Research Analyst
somware called NetWalker. Vic- Family Welfare introduced a effective way to protect the at Manohar Parrikar Institute for
tims received a ransom demand draft bill on Digital Informa- first line of healthcare workers Defence Studies and Analyses.
for the encryption key to regain- tion Security in Healthcare Act especially in the case of high-
ing access to their data. This (DISHA) in March 2018. One ly communicable viruses like Views expressed are of the author
and do not necessarily reflect
ransomware camouflaged itself key purpose of the proposed bill COVID-19 while increasing the views of the IDSA or of the
within essential Windows func- is to secure and create reliable the efficiency of health services. Government of India.
tions to evade anti-virus detec- storage of healthcare data. It However, cybersecurity can-
tion. Health district employees will help constitute a health in- not be an afterthought in the This article first appeared in the
became aware of the ransom- formation exchange, as deemed healthcare sector. Medical spe- Comments section of the website
ware attack on March 10 when eligible by the Act, and maintain cialists often use old and out- of the Institute for Defence Stud-
they lost access to the medical the digital healthcare data of in- dated software/hardware with ies and Analyses (IDSA), New
files. The Federal Bureau of In- dividual patients. minimum security features, Delhi, on June 11, 2020

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