Cybersafe healthcare in the age of IoT

These numbers highlight an urgent need for robust cyber security systems to be put in place to ensure that sensitive data is protected at all times.

The risks of IoT and AI adoption in healthcare certainly pale next to their benefits: these technologies give healthcare providers the ability to draw insights and make predictions from large sets of data, which are collected from an expanding ecosystem of interconnected medical devices like wearables, sensors, and monitoring systems. The data collected includes (but may not be limited to) real-time vital signs, glucose, and activity levels.

These technology-powered insights give healthcare providers the ability to make better-informed decisions on diagnoses and patient treatments – improving patient outcomes down the line.

IoT provides the backbone for this interconnected environment. With access to an ecosystem of IoT devices working with each other to harness, store, and analyse data, healthcare providers can then turn to AI to help identify useful patterns like recognising the early signs of kidney disease, or the symptoms of cardiac arrest.

The two technologies can also accelerate healthcare Research and Development (R&D). AI can sift through large amounts of data, such as genomic data and clinical trial data to identify potential drug candidates and target specific disease mechanisms; while IoT can provide real-time data from clinical trials, allowing researchers to monitor patient responses and adjust trials on the fly.

AI can also help optimise drug design and improve the speed of drug development – for example, machine learning algorithms can predict the effects of different compounds on specific diseases and identify the most promising candidates for further development.

SingHealth, a public healthcare cluster in Singapore, oversees a network of four public hospitals, three community hospitals, five national specialty centres, and eight polyclinics. The vast amounts of data generated by the cluster and tens of thousands of patients demand technologies like AI to help provide personalised healthcare while enabling early risk forecasting.³

Unfortunately, the healthcare sector is one of the most common targets for cyber attacks. A Check Point Research (CPR) study found that in 2022, healthcare organisations experienced as many as 1,462 attacks per week, 60% up from the frequency in 2021.⁴

Cyber attacks can put Singapore-based healthcare facilities at risk in more ways than one – under laws like the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), companies can be fined up to SGD1 million or 10% of the organisation's annual turnover, whichever is higher, in the event of a breach.⁵

As IoT and AI become the norm in healthcare facilities, providers are under pressure to build a robust cyber security system, ensuring that sensitive information from both patients and healthcare workers is kept safe and out of reach from attackers.

Some of the most common cyber security threats for the healthcare sector include⁶:

●  Ransomware
●  Data theft
●  Compromised systems
●  Denial-of-service attacks
●  Malware
●  Cloud threats
●  Weaponisation of tools

To address this broad selection of threats, effective cyber security needs to be holistic in its approach.

For example, Singtel offers round-the-clock monitoring, detection, prevention, and solutions provided by a team of trusted experts.

We also regularly update our threat intelligence, ensuring ongoing vigilance against new modus operandi for cyber attacks.

Solutions provided by Singtel to hospitals include:

●  Proactive risk management
●  Enhancing escalation and response capabilities
●  Formulating crisis strategies

These partnerships show that cyber security should not be left to a single IT department or expert – protecting sensitive patient data is a team effort based on robust and round-the-clock cyber security infrastructure and the know-how of trusted and tested experts.

Let’s talk about building a resilient cyber security infrastructure for your healthcare organisation.