The dark side of IoT

One industry where the Internet of Things (IoT) has really taken hold is Healthcare. The advances that have been made in recent years are staggering - we now live in a world where healthcare is moving from reactive to proactive and data from wearables, monitors and other devices is saving lives. 

The issue is that progress is moving too fast for security to keep up - and that means human error as well as technological.  Part of it is the cybersecurity piece that we have grown accustomed to - the bad actors that will exploit software flaws to remotely unlock your car and steal your bank details are the same ones that will crack the encryption on your blood pressure monitor for perhaps more sinister purposes. 

The ‘people’ risks are a bit more subtle, though. More connected devices means more data overall, which, as this article demonstrates, means that there are more opportunities for insiders to cash in. 58% of healthcare systems breaches involve inside actors and 24% of healthcare workers know of someone who has sold on confidential information, according to reports from Verizon and Accenture respectively. 

Often it is not the technology that is at fault, but the operator. A cautionary tale for other industries, perhaps.