Secure Chorus launches its Thought Leadership Platform

 

Cyber security not-for-profit membership organization, Secure Chorus (www.securechorus.org) has launched its  Thought Leadership Platform to raise awareness and understanding of current cyber security issues among business leaders across the public and private sectors.   The new initiative will also stress the importance of protecting data and how to best address this challenge in practice.

 

With the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there is an increased emphasis on the importance of secure multimedia technologies for M2M, B2B and B2C within the healthcare sector.  Ensuring that staff and patients have secure access to the right data, at the right time, is vital to the NHS providing effective, safe and good-value services.  Digitalization is overcoming many of the inefficiencies and fragmentation of the healthcare sector, however the process of moving to a digital NHS needs to happen with data security in mind.

 

Healthcare is considered Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and therefore an attractive target for hostile foreign countries or organized crime seeking to cause chaos, especially as attacking a healthcare organization that is part of a wider network or infrastructure could also provide a ‘way-in’ to other critical facilities.  Technologies used in healthcare, along with the variety of its stakeholders, create a complex environment to protect, comprising computer systems, mobile applications and IoT devices, as well as non-medical systems such as CCTV. 

 

The large number of stakeholders accessing such technologies has also pushed the security perimeter to protect, with healthcare organisations accessing external networks to stay connected with patients, employees and other stakeholders, and vice versa.  Patient data also has a high black-market value, as it can be used for medical identity theft.  This type of crime is a rising concern for healthcare institutions. Medical identity theft is unlawful use of someone else's identity, such as their health insurance information or social security number, to obtain healthcare services or goods, or to achieve financial gain by falsifying claims and falsifying medical records to support those claims.

 

“The Secure Chorus Thought Leadership Platform initiative is a round-table knowledge-sharing environment that brings together industry voices from both user and vendor communities in the cyber security space,” says Elisabetta Zaccaria, Chairman, Secure Chorus.  “Cyber security is a very complicated world to navigate.  Our Thought Leadership Platform brings together our members with user communities across sectors.  We are aware of the importance of supporting the NHS transition to a digital organization and we are committed to supporting them to tackle the data security aspect of it.”