This paper examines the security risks associated with emerging technologies in a medical center setting. Prompted by a scenario in which a Chief Information Security Officer must rapidly evaluate technology-related vulnerabilities, the paper identifies two primary concerns: unauthorized access to patient data stored in central databases and the privacy and signal-integrity risks of GPS-based patient tracking. It then outlines a set of security protocols — including firewalls, authentication via digital certificates, encryption using public/private key pairs, strong password policies, and IP address filtering — that the organization can adopt to mitigate these threats and protect sensitive patient information.
The paper demonstrates applied problem-solution organization: it defines a security problem within a specific institutional context, identifies discrete vulnerabilities, and maps each vulnerability to a recommended countermeasure. This structure is characteristic of professional technical reports and policy briefs, making it a useful model for students learning to write in applied IT or healthcare informatics contexts.
The paper opens with a scenario that establishes the organizational context and urgency. It then enumerates security vulnerabilities in two categories — general database threats and GPS-specific risks. The methods section follows sequentially, proposing firewall deployment, authentication policies, encryption, password standards, and IP filtering. A brief conclusion synthesizes the recommendations. The paper is approximately 600 words and is organized as a professional evaluation memo rather than a traditional academic essay.
Senior leadership of a medical center recently reviewed a plan for changes to the center's facilities. However, the medical center discovered that the risks associated with new and emerging technologies had not been addressed. As a result, the Hospital's Chief Operating Officer (COO) gave the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) two weeks to deliver a rapid evaluation of those risks, as well as an assessment of the planned facility expansion areas that may pose potential technology problems.
The main security issue at the Medical Center is the protection of patient identity and keeping patient data as anonymous as possible. In the contemporary IT environment, protecting sensitive health information has become a significant challenge for many organizations, since sophisticated hackers can employ a variety of strategies to steal patient information from central databases. The targeted data typically includes Social Security Numbers (SSNs), credit card numbers, bank account details, and other sensitive information that can be exploited for financial gain. Many hackers are sophisticated enough to bypass firewalls and use techniques such as packet sniffing to extract patient information directly from the database (Stell, Sinnott, & Jiang, 2009).
The findings of the evaluation reveal that there are several security loopholes an unauthorized user could exploit to access the hospital's database and collect sensitive patient information. The report therefore provides security protocols the Medical Center can employ to protect its emerging technologies.
The Medical Center has been aiming to expand its technology portfolio to include GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking for patients suffering from dementia. GPS is an emerging technology that has recently been adopted by many healthcare providers to monitor patients with acute conditions and support quality care delivery. The Medical Center intends to use GPS to track patients suffering from vascular dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and other memory-loss conditions (Michael, McNamee, & Michael, 2006).
Despite the benefits the Medical Center would derive from GPS, there are security loopholes that could be exploited by unauthorized parties. GPS relies on wireless network devices, which are inherently vulnerable to intrusion. One of the major security concerns is the possibility of jamming and spoofing. A malicious actor could use spoofing to degrade the GPS signal or jamming to interfere with GPS transmissions entirely (Ekambaram & Ramchandran, 2007). Patient privacy is an additional security concern. The most significant ethical issue is that tracking individuals via GPS can infringe upon personal rights and autonomy.
One of the major strategies for protecting an organization's emerging technologies is the use of multiple layered security devices. Firewall technology is one such device that can be used to protect the medical center's network infrastructure. A firewall blocks outside parties from accessing internal resources. Its primary objective is to control incoming and outgoing network traffic, analyze data packets, and determine which traffic should be permitted to pass through based on predetermined rules. Firewalls are particularly valuable for monitoring data moving through the central database and preventing unauthorized access to patient information.
The hospital also needs to implement a strict policy for keeping patient data anonymous. This includes enforcing access-control policies that clearly define which categories of personnel may access the central database. The medical center should use an authentication procedure based on digital certificates to ensure that only authorized users can access the database.
Encryption is another essential security protocol for protecting data transmitted between sites. Encryption is implemented using public and private key pairs. Its use is critical to ensuring that unauthorized persons cannot access patient information. Within an encryption framework, communications are secured through key pairs, so that data passing through the network is converted into unreadable ciphertext. Only a party possessing the correct asymmetric key can convert that ciphertext back into readable form, thereby protecting patient confidentiality.
Michael, K., McNamee, A., & Michael, M. G. (2006). The emerging ethics of humancentric GPS tracking and monitoring. Faculty of Informatics — Papers. University working paper.
Stell, A., Sinnott, R., & Jiang, J. (2009). A clinical grid infrastructure supporting adverse hypotensive event prediction. National e-Science Centre, University working paper.
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