Trends in Asia
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Recent times have shown nations’ healthcare systems to be among the systems most essential yet also most vulnerable to external threats such as cyber-attacks and cybercrimes. Reports suggest that cyber-attacks on healthcare systems are increasingly sponsored or directed by states.
- It is becoming clear that healthcare facilities cannot and should not bear the burden of ensuring their cybersecurity on their own.
- Ongoing global cyber-norms-making processes are cognisant of this problem. Under the aegis of the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group on the use of ICTs in the context of international security (OEWG), several leading states, including Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland, have already expressed concern over the steady rise in the targeting of medical facilities in cyberspace.
- Within the OEWG, the International Committee of the Red Cross has proposed a norm for cyberspace that would prohibit states from conducting or knowingly supporting ICT activities that target medical services and facilities. States including the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and South Korea have already declared their support for adopting such a norm.
- Operationalizing this norm in India will require: Articulating a National Cyber Security Strategy; Articulating a Sector-Specific Cybersecurity Strategy for the Healthcare Industry; Ensuring Last-Mile Cybersecurity for Healthcare.
