Information Technology systems and the Internet of Things have significantly boosted efficiency and productivity in the healthcare system, which has helped improve the quality of care provided (Nižetić et al., 2020). However, these systems have also increased the potential risks and vulnerabilities, like data breaches in the medical environment. Consequently, it is crucial for any healthcare setting with these systems in place to establish effective systems to analyze any potential vulnerabilities within their framework and devise the necessary strategies or protocols to mitigate the risk of data and security breaches. This discussion provides an instance of a wireless system hacked by breaking WPA2 security protocol to decrypt traffic on a wireless network belonging to a Fortune 500 healthcare organization with a wide variety of IoT devices connecting to the organization’s network. An analysis of the concept of IoT and the KRACK attack breach is crucial to define a mitigation plan to harden this system against future attacks of the same type and protect patients’ personal health information.
The Internet of Things defines the critical components embedded with technological features, including software and sensors, to connect and exchange data with other systems across the Internet. IoT’s three core ideas are data, hardware, and control (Shalannanda et al., 2020). Data refers to all the elements analysts gather, handle, examine, and employ to pinpoint and regulate users, behaviors, and settings. Data can be transmitted from a sensing element over a wireless or wired network or obtained by a consumer, device, or web application with specific permissions unavailable to others. Data can also be stored on a hard drive, in a database, in flash memory, or RAM. Control is a unique piece of information intended to alter a device’s status (Shalannanda et al., 2020). Control is crucial to IoT security because it connects the physical world to the abstract Internet, allowing linked devices to alter their surroundings physically. Hardware is the substantial part of a computer system with which users may physically interact.
Several strategies to mitigate the risk of losing patient personal information are used to mitigate the KRACK attack risk. The most effective way is to implement a strict firewall over the Wi-Fi connection and ensure it is always turned on (Rizvi et al., 2020). Secondly, the hospital should include a full anti virus to protect the system in cases where hackers target the system and install malicious software (Rizvi et al., 2020). Lastly, the hospital should insist that all the staff with access to the network use a particular domain like HTTPS on the browser. This strategy limits phishing attacks and other vulnerabilities targeting the network.
In conclusion, integrating IoT systems transform the health provision environment. These systems boost patient care by improving safety, efficiency, and communications and pushing care to be more patient-centered. However, these systems also increase vulnerabilities and risk security breaches within the environment. This analysis of the concepts of the Internet of things and the vulnerability, like the wireless system hacked by breaking WPA2 security protocol to decrypt traffic, shows how these attacks can be detrimental to the delicate, particularly the medical environment.
References
Nižetić, S., Šolić, P., González-de, D. L. D. I., & Patrono, L. (2020). Internet of Things (IoT): Opportunities, issues, and challenges towards a smart and sustainable future. Journal of Cleaner Production, 274, 122877.
Rizvi, S., Pipette, R., McIntyre, N., Todd, J., & Williams, I. (2020). Threat model for securing the internet of things (IoT) network at the device level. Internet of Things, p. 11, 100240.
Shalannanda, W., Zakia, I., Sutanto, E., & Fahmi, F. (2020, September). Design of hardware module of IoT-based infant incubator monitoring system. 2020 6th International Conference on Wireless and Telematics (ICWT) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
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