(HEARTLAND DAILY NEWS) – The health care sector is facing powerful cyberattacks that are more sophisticated, occur more frequently, and have greater disruptive potential than ever before. Cyberattacks can expose private medical records, cause major economic losses, and damage the reputation of the institution targeted.
At their worst, the attacks can threaten life and limb, writes Dr. Christian Dameff, a practicing emergency medicine physician; assistant professor of emergency medicine, biomedical informatics, and computer science at the University of California-San Diego; and medical director of cybersecurity for U.C.-San Diego Health.
“When patients suffer from strokes, heart attacks, or severe infections, minutes matter,” Dameff wrote in testimony for the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “The best outcomes for patients with these time-dependent crises depend on the immediate, continuous availability of the same digital systems that [cyberattacks] can disrupt. When critical medical systems go offline, our opportunity to save lives diminishes. Our risk of error or misdiagnosis increases.”
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