Cyber threats to health information systems: A systematic review

Digital technology has been increasingly implemented in healthcare systems, providing the structural framework for systems like the electronic health record (EHR) mapping the care of patients over large periods of time. Such digital systems ameliorate access to lab results, the orders of prescriptions, and the aggregation of data for computational analysis. With recent legislation “empowering providers to embrace the electronic exchange of health information,” it becomes imperative to review the trends of cyber crimes to identify vulnerabilities in existing digital systems being used in healthcare. A review of 19 published articles distills cybercrime in healthcare to both internal threats, including denial-of-service and outdated hardware, and external threats, including cybersquatting and critical infrastructure failure. With the increasing number of entry points paired with the increase in medical devices and digital technology, data breaches become a primary threat to health ecosystems.