Level: Technical

Abstract:
Hospitals can be attractive places for hackers. With access to critical medical records and personally identifiable information, there is great opportunity to exploit patients. Health care workers are very busy and, more often than not, there is not a lot of interest in computer security. Privacy and the protection of computer records sometimes gets put on the back burner, and caring for the devices used in hospitals is an after-thought, meaning that computers and other devices are not updated in a timely manner and are prone to vulnerabilities.

I see vulnerabilities on all levels and in all roles and locations in the hospital – in software, devices, and with humans. The consequences of bad security and bad privacy are huge and can cause harm both to the patient and to employees.

Criminal behaviour can go unnoticed for long periods. Without proper security controls patient records can be manipulated. You can imagine the consequences; they can happen.

Security needs to be built from the ground up so that employees understand the risks at all levels and can do all they can to protect the patient. We must build awareness programmes and develop processes and procedures that are possible to follow, thereby creating a higher level of security to ensure that our patients are not in danger.

This presentation will expose the risks and vulnerabilities in hospitals and aims to start driving the discussion and generation of ideas for procedures to avoid the dangerous pitfalls that put lives in peril. My goal is to ensure that we create a safe and secure environment for our patients and employees.

Bio:
Jelena Milosevic – A pediatrician and ICU nurse with a lot of experience, working at many different hospitals in the Netherlands. Over the past 3 years active in the infosec community and applying the knowledge of infosec into the healthcare world to improve the security of the environment for patients and the medical staff. A member of the I Am The Cavalry group and a part of the network of Women in Cyber.

Video/recordings:

[Slides (PDF)] [Recording (MP4)]

Posted on Monday, February 19th, 2018 at 9:58 AM in talks | rss feed for comments| Both comments and pings are currently closed.