Medical data security: Are you informed or afraid?

Authors

Patricia Williams, Edith Cowan University

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Springer

Faculty

Faculty of Computing, Health and Science

School

School of Computer and Information Science / Centre for Security Research

RAS ID

5287

Comments

Williams, P. (2007). Medical data security: Are you informed or afraid? International Journal of Information and Computer Security. Vol 1(4): 414-429. Available here

Abstract

Practical application of security measures severely hampers the level of security afforded to medical data in Australia. Whilst the reasons for medical data security are widely understood, there is little published information on how to tackle even basic security challenges for medical practice in Australia. Research suggests that there is an underestimation of the potential threats by medical practitioners; hence there is sufficient reason to promote development of tools to assist medical practice with technical issues they are unfamiliar with. This paper discusses the lack of threat realisation and provides a process for how security may be improved by those who are responsible for it. The process includes a framework for risk assessment and its practical implementation to make medical data in Australia secure.

DOI

10.1504/IJICS.2007.015502