CYBERSECURITY ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK FOR HEALTHCARE INSTITUTIONS PRE-MEDICAL CYBER-PHYSICAL SYSTEM ADOPTION

Medical cyber-physical systems enable the remote monitoring of patients, thereby enhancing accessibility to care. Unfortunately, secure adoption is still difficult, as this remains an unresolved topic that includes cybersecurity and privacy issues. While a number of frameworks exist in the general realm of CPS cybersecurity readiness, few frameworks address the healthcare domain. This study proposes a Cybersecurity Assessment Framework (CAF) together with a quantitative scorecard to assess cybersecurity readiness before healthcare institutions embark on MCPS adoption. Meta-analysis of existing frameworks, coupled with expert interviews, has resulted in five Critical Success Factors (CSFs) being established: reliability, validity, third-party authentication, security, and transparency. Furthermore, a case study approach was adopted with IT managers and healthcare professionals of two Libyan hospitals. Results indicated that the CAF is valid and usable and supports the secure adoption of MCPS, though privacy remains a concern. This work presents a novel, domain-specific CAF for healthcare cybersecurity, followed by tools nurturing IT governance.