Is the U.S. Health Care System a Target for Cyberterrorism?

Dec. 17, 2012 - PRLog -- Contact: Vicki Cohn, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., (914) 740-2100, vcohn@liebertpub.com

Is the U.S. Health Care System a Target for Cyberterrorism?

New Rochelle, NY, December 17, 2012—The health care system in the U.S. is a $2.5 trillion industry and depends heavily on communication and the transfer of information via the Internet. This puts it at ever-increasing risk of a cyberterrorism attack, which could jeopardize lives and threaten patient care and privacy. Cyber threats are on the rise, and U.S. health care organizations must be better prepared to deal with them, according to an article published in Telemedicine and e-Health, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available on the Telemedicine and e-Health website (http://www.liebertpub.com/tmj).

In "Cyberterrorism: Is the U.S. Healthcare System Safe?," (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/tmj.2012.0022) David Harries, MBA, MPP, Océ North America (Pembroke Pines, FL) and Peter Yellowlees, MBBS, MD, University of California, Davis (Sacramento), explore the risk of a cyber attack on health care targets in the U.S. They predict what a cyber attack might look like, proposing that it would occur in waves over a period of weeks, leaving a hospital's staff untrusting of electronic data and its IT staff "totally demoralized." The article also discusses why health care in general is a target, how the health care system is currently protecting itself from a potential cyber attack, and what it could and should do to protect itself better in the future.

"Many years ago, when we first started using the Internet for telemedicine, a colleague expressed his concern to me about our efforts," says Charles R. Doarn, MBA, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal and Research Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Ohio. "He said he had three concerns about telemedicine on the Internet: ‘Security, Security, Security.’ Nearly 20 years later, the Internet and the Web are integral parts of what we do in medicine, commerce, news, entertainment, etc. We must remain vigilant, and Harries and Yellowlees do an outstanding job of bringing this to our attention.”

About the Journal
Telemedicine and e-Health (http://www.liebertpub.com/tmj) is An Official Journal of the American Telemedicine Association, the Canadian Telehealth Forum of COACH, and the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth. Co-edited by Ronald C. Merrell, MD, Professor of Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and Charles Doarn, MBA, Research Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Ohio, Telemedicine and e-Health is the leading international, peer-reviewed journal combining medicine, telecommunications, and information technology. The Journal covers telemedicine applications that are playing an increasingly important role in health care and provides tools that are indispensable for home health care, remote patient monitoring, and disease management. It encompasses not only rural health and battlefield care, but nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and maritime and aviation applications. Tables of content and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Telemedicine and e-Health website (http://www.liebertpub.com/tmj).

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com), is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Population Health Management, Games for Health Journal, and Journal of Laparoendoscopic Surgery and Advanced Surgical Techniques. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website (http://www.liebertpub.com).