Cyber Victimization in the Healthcare Industry: Motivations and Target Characteristics through Routine Activities Theory (RAT) and Cyber-Routine Activities Theory (Cyber-RAT)
How does Cyber Victimization in the Healthcare Industry relate to the Principles of Science?
Cyber victimization in the healthcare industry can relate to the principles of science in quite a few ways. One of the ways is to test the Healthcare’s systems and networks to prevent hackers from stealing important information, data theft, and even causing software damage, which relates to empiricism. Another principle of science that it relates to is determinism. Any vulnerabilities within the healthcare’s system that is overlooked is prone to being infiltrated. As well as using the latest technologies & software to ensure that additional layer of protection. Healthcare is a major target to cybercriminals since their systems hold a lot of private information like social security, addresses, etc. When it comes to determinism, having a deterministic view is extremely important to protect any information within the healthcare industry.
Types of Research Questions
In this article, they wondered, as cyber threats increased, what are the risks that we need to understand? Along with, what plans may we need to put in place to protect, respond to, and recover from a cyberattack?
Types of Research Methods Used
Firstly, they implied the core principles of Routine Activities Theory and the Cyber-Routine Activities Theory framework. “Through this approach, the study aims to propose actionable plans to enhance the resilience of the healthcare system against the growing threat of cyberattacks”. Then, they investigated the most common types of cyberattacks that affect the healthcare sectors. The type of cyberattacks include phishing, ransomware, data theft, insider (accidental or intentional) data loss, and supply chain.
Types of Data and Analysis
One of the types of data collected was from the Hackmageddon website that compiles all data on cyber-attacks and then categorizes each attack by the type, targeted organization, motivates, and the outcomes. The data was focused on 2018-2023 victimization cases within the healthcare industry. The Internation Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime stated, “The final sample size comprised 1,138 cases, each representing a unique instance of cybercrime in the healthcare domain”. They ensured having a more robust data analysis by supplementing the information from credible sources, like Databreaches.net, CSIDB.org, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Journal. That way any missing information was filled.
Individual Motives & Psychological Principles to Cyber Victims
How do individual motives and psychological principles to cyber victims relate to cyber victimization in the healthcare industry? Many cybercriminals target healthcare industries to sell valuable information for money, which relates to individual motives. Now, let’s look at the phycological principles of the victims. Many victims of cyberattacks are left feeling depressed, lost, anxious, angry, embarrassed, and/or lose trust. This applies to victims of healthcare cyberattacks. Most people who experience their data being leaked within the healthcare system lose trust in healthcare and become angered or saddened.
Relation to Marginalized Groups
Sadly, marginalized groups face many challenges including being a target of data theft. Most cybercriminals target these groups either due to discrimination against their race, sex, or sexuality. Cybercriminals may sometimes target certain races, sexes, or people in lower income areas since they view them as “easy targets”.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this article benefits the overall contributions of society by providing how our data may be kept safe, the types of ways cybercriminals may try to take our data, as well as certain applications that may be more vulnerable, like telehealth. Most people are unaware that healthcare breaches happen, along with how they may be scammed into leaking their own information. This article provides a good example on how and why healthcare breaches and data loss happen. It also provides important information on the types of targeted healthcare organizations. Understanding the vulnerabilities along with what attacker’s motives and techniques may be, can benefit people and organizations in society.
References
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“Through this approach, the study aims to propose actionable plans to enhance the resilience of the healthcare system against the growing threat of cyberattacks” Praveen, Y. , Kim, M. & Choi, K. (2024). Cyber Victimization in the Healthcare Industry: Analyzing Offender Motivations and Target Characteristics through Routine Activities Theory (RAT) and Cyber-Routine
“The final sample size comprised 1,138 cases, each representing a unique instance of cybercrime in the healthcare domain” Praveen, Y. , Kim, M. & Choi, K. (2024). Cyber Victimization in the Healthcare Industry: Analyzing Offender Motivations and Target Characteristics through Routine Activities Theory (RAT) and Cyber-Routine
Article
https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1186&context=ijcic