The first national study group on cyber security has been established in Italy in order to create a security system for cyber-data in healthcare services

The first national study group on cyber security has been established in Italy in order to contrive a security system for cyber-data in healthcare services. The team, coordinated by the Italian Institute of Health, is the result of a joint initiative of the National Center for Telemedicine and Assistive Technologies of the National Center for Innovative Technologies in Public Health, in cooperation with the Italian Postal and Communications Police. Many experts from different Italian universities are part of the team. Their work will aim to develop knowledge and methods of cyber-defense for healthcare IT systems and, for the first time in our country, it will be conducted thanks to the synergy between our national institutions.

Who are the members of the Italian healthcare Cybersecurity Team

The members of the Italian Cybersecurity Team are Fabrizio Baiardi from the University of Pisa; Nunzia Ciardi, director of the Italian Postal and Communications Police; Claudio Cilli, President of the Rome Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA); Alberto Marchetti Spaccamela (University “La Sapienza”, Rome); Gabriele Faggioli and Maria Cristina Daga attorneys at CLUSIT (the Italian Association for Information Security of the Polytechnic University of Milan); Paolo Prinetto, President of CINI (the National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics); Maurizio Rizzetto, of the Italian Association of Clinical Engineers (AIIC), Francesco Vellucci (Digital SIT), and Stefano Zanero of the Polytechnic University of Milan.

The mission of the study group is to analyze specific strategies in order to improve the cyber-defenses of national health facilities against various types of cyber-attacks

According to Francesco Gabbrielli, director of the National Center for Telemedicine and Assistive Technologies, the group will elaborate specific strategies to improve steadily the cyber-defenses of the health facilities against various types of cyber-attacks. In addition, it will devise appropriate and up-to-date training systems for healthcare professionals, with the aim of developing a greater cyber-risk awareness in the field of public health. The development of these strategies, in fact, is crucial also in the perspective of a “cultural growth” about the issue of cyber-security concerning both healthcare IT systems and network-connected devices. Norms and regulations exist, and ISS has been working for years to improve risk-management practices of healthcare technologies in order to ensure the highest levels of patient safety.

Nunzia Ciardi: as cyber-attacks on a global scale are noticeably increasing, a stronger attention should be dedicated to find cyber security solutions

It is especially appropriate – noted Nunzia Ciardi, director of the Italian Postal and Communications Police, as quoted in an ISS statement – to devote our greater attention to finding suitable cyber security solutions to the current level of the global threat. This is even truer in this particular point in time, characterized by a significant increase in the number of cyber-attacks on a world scale. This kind of projects – she added – are the best way forward, because they combine the outstanding professional standard of the actors involved with the virtuous public-private partnership models without which it is currently impossible to ensure an effective action to prevent and counter these phenomena.