Information security and privacy in the healthcare sector is an issue of growing importance. The adoption of digital patient records, increased regulation, provider consolidation and the increasing need for information exchange between patients, providers and payers, all point towards the need for better information security. We critically survey the literature on information security and privacy in healthcare, published in information systems journals as well as many other related disciplines including health informatics, public health, law, medicine, the trade press and industry reports. In this paper, we provide a holistic view of the recent research and suggest new areas of interest to the information systems community.

http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~lxiong/cs573_s12/share/slides/501.pdf

Information security and privacy in healthcare: current state of research

Information technology can improve the quality, efficiency, and cost of healthcare. In this survey, we examine the privacy requirements of mobile computing technologies that have the potential to transform healthcare. Such mHealth technology enables physicians to remotely monitor patients' health and enables individuals to manage their own health more easily. Despite these advantages, privacy is essential for any personal monitoring technology. Through an extensive survey of the literature, we develop a conceptual privacy framework for mHealth, itemize the privacy properties needed in mHealth systems, and discuss the technologies that could support privacy-sensitive mHealth systems. We end with a list of open research questions.

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Privacy in mobile technology for personal healthcare

In this study two currently relevant aspects of using medical assistive technologies were addressed—security and privacy. In a two-step empirical approach that used focus groups (n = 19) and a survey (n = 104), users’ requirements for the use of medical technologies were collected and evaluated. Specifically, we focused on the perceived importance of data security and privacy issues. Outcomes showed that both security and privacy aspects play an important role in the successful adoption of medical assistive technologies in the home environment. In particular, analysis of data with respect to gender, health-status and age (young, middle-aged and old users) revealed that females and healthy adults require, and insist on, the highest security and privacy standards compared with males and the ailing elderly.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1460458212442933

Privacy and data security in E-health: requirements from the user's perspective

In this paper, we consider the challenge of preserving patient privacy in the context of mobile healthcare and home-care systems, that is, the use of mobile computing and communications technologies in the delivery of healthcare or the provision of at-home medical care and assisted living. This paper makes three primary contributions. First, we compare existing privacy frameworks, identifying key differences and shortcomings. Second, we identify a privacy framework for mobile healthcare and home-care systems. Third, we extract a set of privacy properties intended for use by those who design systems and applications for mobile healthcare and home-care systems, linking them back to the privacy principles. Finally, we list several important research questions that the community should address. We hope that the privacy framework in this paper can help to guide the researchers and developers in this community, and that the privacy properties provide a concrete foundation for privacy-sensitive systems and applications for mobile healthcare and home-care systems.

/pdf/a-privacy-framework-for-mobile-health-and-home-care-systems-2z04sdj8b5.pdf

A privacy framework for mobile health and home-care systems

Common authentication methods based on passwords, tokens, or fingerprints perform one-time authentication and rely on users to log out from the computer terminal when they leave. Users often do not log out, however, which is a security risk. The most common solution, inactivity timeouts, inevitably fail security (too long a timeout) or usability (too short a timeout) goals. One solution is to authenticate users continuously while they are using the terminal and automatically log them out when they leave. Several solutions are based on user proximity, but these are not sufficient: they only confirm whether the user is nearby but not whether the user is actually using the terminal. Proposed solutions based on behavioral biometric authentication (e.g., keystroke dynamics) may not be reliable, as a recent study suggests. To address this problem we propose Zero-Effort Bilateral Recurring Authentication (ZEBRA). In ZEBRA, a user wears a bracelet (with a built-in accelerometer, gyroscope, and radio) on her dominant wrist. When the user interacts with a computer terminal, the bracelet records the wrist movement, processes it, and sends it to the terminal. The terminal compares the wrist movement with the inputs it receives from the user (via keyboard and mouse), and confirms the continued presence of the user only if they correlate. Because the bracelet is on the same hand that provides inputs to the terminal, the accelerometer and gyroscope data and input events received by the terminal should correlate because their source is the same - the user's hand movement. In our experiments ZEBRA performed continuous authentication with 85% accuracy in verifying the correct user and identified all adversaries within 11s. For a different threshold that trades security for usability, ZEBRA correctly verified 90% of users and identified all adversaries within 50s.

/pdf/zebra-zero-effort-bilateral-recurring-authentication-4rxjadlhjh.pdf

ZEBRA: Zero-Effort Bilateral Recurring Authentication

This paper discusses the challenges associated with privacy in health care in the electronic information age based on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Security Rules. We examine the storing and transmission of sensitive patient data in the modern health care system and discuss current security practices that health care providers institute to comply with HIPAA Security Rule regulations. Based on our research results, we address current outstanding issues that act as impediments to the successful implementation of security measures and conclude the discussion and offer possible avenues of future research.

Kathleen E. Capitan

Papers

Challenges Associated with Privacy in Health Care Industry: Implementation of HIPAA and the Security Rules