Cyber Risk in Health Facilities: A Systematic Literature Review

TL;DR

This systematic review examines the limited research on cyber risks in healthcare facilities during COVID-19, highlighting the need for empirical studies and practical cybersecurity solutions in the sector.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of existing literature on healthcare cyber risks, identifying gaps and emphasizing the need for empirical research and practical risk management strategies.

Findings

Research on healthcare cyber risks is limited, mainly concentrated in the United States.

There is a significant lack of contributions in Business, Management, Social Science, and Mathematics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has doubled cyber-attacks on health facilities.

Abstract

The current world challenges include issues such as infectious disease pandemics, environmental health risks, food safety, and crime prevention. Through this article, a special emphasis is given to one of the main challenges in the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, the cyber risk. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization has detected a dramatic increase in the number of cyber-attacks. For instance, in Italy the COVID-19 emergency has heavily affected cybersecurity; from January to April 2020, the total of attacks, accidents, and violations of privacy to the detriment of companies and individuals has doubled. Using a systematic and rigorous approach, this paper aims to analyze the literature on the cyber risk in the healthcare sector to understand the real knowledge on this topic. The findings highlight the poor attention of the scientific community on this topic, except in the United States. The literature lacks research contributions to support cyber risk management in subject areas such as Business, Management and Accounting; Social Science; and Mathematics. This research outlines the need to empirically investigate the cyber risk, giving a practical solution to health facilities. Keywords: cyber risk; cyber-attack; cybersecurity; computer security; COVID-19; coronavirus;information technology risk; risk management; risk assessment; health facilities; healthcare sector;systematic literature review; insurance