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Threats and Opportunities Related to the Internet of Things (IOT) and Specific African Healthcare Developments and Risks
Abstract
Africa is positioned to gain from a myriad of healthcare innovations that might drastically improve patient care at a reduced cost, boost preventative healthcare, and virtually transport the top medical practitioners to the continent’s most neglected regions. Exciting breakthroughs in healthcare technology, on the other hand, may put patients at risk in both the cyber and natural worlds. The Internet of Things (IoT) is sometimes viewed in the context of a fourth industrial revolution, which will elevate internet-based interconnection to unprecedented heights. This transition includes more data collecting, closely watched customer and user behavior, and growing demand for data miners and analysts. On the other hand, security problems are not just there; with the introduction of new platforms and methodologies into the corporate sector, new methods of attacking, getting data, and rendering service providers inaccessible have evolved. The security of data, numerous digital applications, and various organizational procedures have become vital in our current era of digitalization. Today, there is a growing awareness of the importance of cyber safety, security, and resilience. This is a broad topic that has piqued the interest of people all across the world. Today, numerous human variables and the proper education play an essential part in the development and comprehension of cyber resilience, giving rise to a plethora of cyber resilience programs.
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This article explores terrorism against healthcare facilities and workers throughout the world since September 11, 2001 to assess trends in these attacks. Using five datasets, it examines the increased risk of terrorist attacks against healthcare facilities and workers, and analyzes when, where and how these largely soft targets have been attacked by terrorists. The article provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis about the types of attacks and concludes with recommendations for healthcare facilities to mitigate the risk of terrorist attacks as well as provides suggestions for further studies.
Building on conceptual work on security and cyber security, the paper explores how different approaches to cyber security are constructed. It outlines structural components and presents four common approaches. Each of them suggests a different role for the actors involved and is motivated and justified by different values such as privacy, economic order and national security. When a cyber security policy or initiative is chosen by policymakers, the analysis of the underlying approach enhances our understanding of how this shapes relationships between actors and of the values prioritised, promoted and inscribed into the concerned technologies.
Cyber security experts have acknowledged the need to focus more attention on the attitudes, beliefs and practices of end-users. Unfortunately, rather than fostering social research on users, this realisation has more often led to blaming users for security problems and sponsorship of fear-based campaigns directed at end-users. This scholarly essay argues for a shift in research to center on fostering a ‘security mindset’. Instead of just identifying safe practices, this would help build a mindset that embeds cyber security considerations into the everyday choices of users. This paper seeks to explain the concept of a security ‘mindset’ and its social significance, and suggest ways to move research forward.
The ongoing digital transformation requires significant investments and innovation to provide security of cyberspace and variety of critical infrastructures and essential services that increasingly depend on the digital infrastructure, as well as to enhance the resilience of organizations, communities, industries, nations, and alliances in the face of malicious use of cyberspace.
This volume presents 28 of the papers, accepted for presentation at the DIGILIENCE 2019 conference, dealing with cyber information sharing and situational awareness, the benefits and challenges of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, the human factor, education and training for cyber security and resilience, the need to incorporate the cybersecurity efforts into the search for effective and efficient exploitation of information technologies, policies and solutions for security and resilience of Industry 4.0 and critical infrastructures, analysing and countering hybrid influence through social networks and more traditional media. The DIGILIENCE series of conferences will promote the sharing of knowledge and experience and facilitate the spread of good practice in IT governance, cyber security and resilience.
Based on a review of diff erent analytical frameworks, it is suggested to run a table top cyber
wargame when trying to analyse the eff ects of closed national networks being imposed in
the near future. Th e scope of the wargame is to extract results to show how the resilience
of an open national network diff ers from a closed national network. It is self-evident that
the formation process of resilience is diff erent between the diverse systems. Th e proposed
wargame is a two-sided cyber table top wargame. Th e wargame is based on at least two
blue teams, at least one red team and a control team (namely a white team). One blue team
is located in the closed national networks and its system relies on closed national network
infrastructure. Th e other blue team operates its system within open network society. By
designing, constructing and executing the proposed cyber wargame we argue it is possible to fi nd these diff erences and similarities as well. Current research improves cyber situation
awareness and proposes a direction to be followed when trying to understand the changing
circumstances of the cyber space. It also suggests how the research resources could be
directed when trying to improve the situation awareness of the closing process.
Transnational organised crime (TOC) refers to a fluid and diversified industry that engages in illicit activities ranging from drug and human trafficking to drug smuggling, piracy and money laundering. Although it may affect strong states, conflict-affected and fragile states are especially vulnerable to the dynamics of TOC and may provide more favourable conditions for its development. The implications for those states are many and serious. This paper outlines the ways in which TOC has evolved in recent years and how policy might be adapted to take account of this evolution. It emphasises that TOC today is less a matter of organised cartels established in producer or end-user states, but increasingly characterised by fluid, opportunistic networks that may for example specialise in transport and logistics. The paper recommends tackling the problem through a comprehensive approach that considers TOC as but one element within a greater complex of cause and effect. This would entail a re-evaluation of many current assumptions about TOC and a reformulation of current policies.
As Critical National Infrastructures are becoming more vulnerable to cyber attacks, their protection becomes a significant issue for any organization as well as a nation. Moreover, the ability to attribute is a vital element of avoiding impunity in cyberspace. In this article, we present main threats to critical infrastructures along with protective measures that one nation can take, and which are classified according to legal, technical, organizational, capacity building, and cooperation aspects. Finally we provide an overview of current methods and practices regarding cyber attribution and cyber peace keeping Received on XXXX; accepted on XXXX; published on XXXX
Advanced information and communications technologies (ICT) facilitate the increase of effectiveness and efficiency of defence and security organizations, governmental services, the economy, and quality of life, while at the same time providing opportunities for malicious actors to cause significant damage without exercising physical coercion. Policies for security and resilience of modern societies to threats and risks from the cyberspace account for foreseen cyber threats, their immediate impact on ICT infrastructure, consequent effects on critical services, as well as cascading effects across systems and infrastructures. This paper presents the architecture used to plan and, consequently, manage cybersecurity research in Bulgaria. It covers five application areas (information management systems; industrial control systems; unmanned and remotely piloted vehicles; bio-integrated systems; and cognitive processes and decision-making), the study of systems of systems, and support to the formulation and implementation of cybersecurity policy.
Counterterrorism efforts have seen an increasing demand all over the world. Given the increasingly sophisticated detection equipment, terrorists chose between two options: surpass authorities at technological level or revert to simple techniques that outwit detection abilities. Tendencies show that they incline to choose the second option. It is not only cheaper to produce " bombs in the kitchen of one's mum " , but when taking into account the accessability, detectability and transportability of conventional military equipment, it is the only " logical " way to a global jihad. While counterterrorist authorities are thinking about the next phase of " arms race " , a similarily important question is the increased use of the simple equipment on a global level. In the field of prevention, the simpler a weapon, the harder it is to detect. In this article, my aim is not to give ideas to future fighters, but to highlight the issue of low-cost attacks.
This paper proposes the Cyber Resilience Preparedness Index for monitoring and comparing the cyber resilience of Africa’s top-12 emerging economies. The index covers five critical areas that incorporate a total of 24 indicators derived or adapted from the International Telecommunication Union’s 2014 Cyber Wellness Profiles, a Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation white paper on global cyber risk and the well-known Cyber Readiness Index. The final Cyber Resilience Preparedness Index is a simple average of the five area (sub-index) scores; the score for each sub-index is also the simple average of the scores of the composing indicators. This computation assumes that all the sub-indices contribute equally to national cyber resilience preparedness.
The results indicate that six countries, namely Sudan, Ghana, Libya, Zimbabwe, Algeria and Angola, are at risk to compromises of their critical systems. In contrast, Egypt tops the chart of six countries, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco and South Africa, that demonstrate preparedness against compromises to their critical systems, industries and classified documents, as well as against industrial espionage. This study also argues that assessments of the progress of Africa’s fastest-growing economies should be conducted periodically using evolving evaluation criteria.
A new and fast emerging shift in networking and communications is the Internet of Things. This
new connectivity paradigm (according to industry and academic analysts) is expected to fully
mature by the year 2020. A number of industry giants have already created platforms both for
production and deployment of devices, processes and services aimed at maximising the
opportunities accruable from this new development. The developing economies of Sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) have a unique opportunity to join in the Internet of Things race at the
developmental stage. Their ability to maximise the benefits of this early participation in a novel
technological trend will, however, be determined by their level of preparedness both
technologically and policy wise. A measure of the readiness of Sub-Saharan African states for the
adoption of the IoTs becomes of imperative importance. We present, in this study, a preliminary
assessment of the preparedness of SSA economies for the adoption of the IoTs as a background
for a more detailed work on a proposed index (@-IoT Index) for measuring in quantitative terms
the preparedness level of States for IoT adoption.
This is a review of the book “Principles of Cyber-physical Systems” authored by Rajeev Alur and published by the MIT Press at 2015.
Other names of online education are e-learning, cyber schools or distance learning, which are distinct from face to face traditional education because students do not need to visit an actual classroom and listen to an instructor talking to them. Online education is a classroom on the internet that engages and assists students to study in their own free time. It is self-directed learning. The internet has become a major educational technological advancement tool in society and the universities in Ghana, such as the University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Cape Coast University, took advantage of it by offering courses online to target the working class in Ghana. However, the rate of online education in these universities is still very low according to the questionnaire results of the study. Most of the students still prefer face to face classroom teaching to the cyber schools. They have a negative perception about online education, but the use of the internet frequently can lead to changes in views. Online education has a big advantage that the students do not need to resign from their jobs to take courses in the university; they do not need to look for babysitters to look after their children so they can go for classes. Online education has brought easy ways to study and to get a degree to the doorsteps of the working classes and students alike in Ghana through the higher educational institution.
The internet has become so integrated with users’ daily activities, that cyber users interweave their daily activities automatically between the physical and cyberspace without noticing. Cyberspace can be referred to as a virtual computer world, which includes the connectivity of multiple networks. These connections between multiple networks within cyberspace form a global computer network to enable online communication between cyber users. Cyber users connect to cyberspace for socialising, work and educational purposes. The advantages of cyberspace are enormous and to a great benefit to all cyber users and cyber business. However, cyberspace opens the door to a number of possible cyber risks and cybercrimes that can affect cyber users. Cybercrimes and risks relate to either financial loss, disruption or damage to the reputation of a cyber user or organisation. These cybercrimes can include hacking, phishing or identity theft. Cyber users may not be aware of or knowledgeable regarding cyber risks and cybercrimes. The cyber user needs to be cyber safety conscious in order to be protected against cyber risks and cybercrimes. In many instances, cyber users within the industrial sector are being made aware of cyber risks through education and training programmes within their working environment. However, many cyber users within communities in South Africa are not working in industry and therefore do not have access to opportunities regarding cyber safety awareness. This research aims to investigate the level of cyber safety awareness within communities and propose a number of approaches that can be used to create and implement cyber-safety awareness programmes and material within different communities. Differently communities within South Africa have different needs that can range from different languages, learning approaches and community-defined processes and procedures. A quantitative research method and random sampling were used to obtain data about cyber safety awareness within communities. In the research, a survey with full ethical clearance was used.
Nowadays, industrial control systems are experiencing a new revolution with the interconnection of the operational equipment with the Internet, and the introduction of cutting-edge technologies such as Cloud Computing or Big data within the organization. These and other technologies are paving the way to the Industry 4.0. However, the advent of these technologies, and the innovative services that are enabled by them, will also bring novel threats whose impact needs to be understood. As a result, this paper provides an analysis of the evolution of these cyber-security issues and the requirements that must be satisfied by intrusion detection defense mechanisms in this context.
The purpose of this study was to develop a model of factors associated with healthcare data breaches. Variables were operationalized as the healthcare facilities' level of exposure, level of security, and organizational factors. The outcome variable was the binary value for data breach/no data breach. Because healthcare data breaches carry the risk of personal health information exposure, corruption or destruction, this study is important to the healthcare field. Data were obtained from the Department of Health and Human Services database of healthcare facilities reporting data breaches and from a large national database of technical and organizational infrastructure information. Binary logistic regression was utilized to examine a representative data breach model. Results indicate several exposure, security and organizational factors significantly associated with healthcare data breaches.
The United Kingdom Energy sector powers homes and supports businesses, delivering a major contribution to the economy. In this article, the author looks at the increasing complexity and interconnectivity of generation and supply technology, and the potential vulnerabilities that could impact upon the power industry, characterising the challenges that companies face in developing organisational-level resilience strategies. Resilience enables an organisation to respond to change and disruption, understand risks, and gain a competitive and reputational edge. A company can measure the resilience of its tangible elements, but assessing the security of intangible elements such as cultural ethos is more complex. One approach to this complexity is to apply a systems approach, structuring the available mix of data for analysis to understand an organisation and assess its resilience, enabling recommendations to support management and investment decisions in key areas including cyber security. The author illustrates a fictional case study, in which a renewable generation company discovers gaps in its cyber security resilience, and the steps it might take. The key challenge for the power sector is to develop a sound understanding of the vulnerabilities of its systems, and to put in both the appropriate engineered controls and related societal, cultural and organisational controls.
This paper presents the implementation of an epidemiological model to combat a zero-day outbreak within a closed network. The proposed dynamic Cyber Resilience Recovery Model (CRRM) is used to combat the simulated outbreak and minimize disruptions to business operations. CRRM combines the National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-61 incident response life cycle (Cichonski and Scarfone 2012) and Susceptible-Infected-Quarantined-Recovered (Sterman 2000) epidemiological model. It provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses of current recovery processes and presents possible solutions for addressing changing cybersecurity threats. Evaluation results demonstrate that CRRM accurately simulates malware outbreaks on a network and has the potential to serve as a valuable tool for supporting decision-making and technological investments that improve cyber resilience.
Background
Economic science has evolved over several decades toward greater emphasis on empirical work. The data revolution of the past decade is likely to have a further and profound effect on economic research. Increasingly, economists make use of newly available large-scale administrative data or private sector data that often are obtained through collaborations with private firms, giving rise to new opportunities and challenges.
Advances
These new data are affecting economic research along several dimensions. Many fields have shifted from a reliance on relatively small-sample government surveys to administrative data with universal or near-universal population coverage. This shift is transformative, as it allows researchers to rigorously examine variation in wages, health, productivity, education, and other measures across different subpopulations; construct consistent long-run statistical indices; generate new quasi-experimental research designs; and track diverse outcomes from natural and controlled experiments.
Perhaps even more notable is the expansion of private sector data on economic activity. These data, sometimes available from public sources but other times obtained through data-sharing agreements with private firms, can help to create more granular and real-time measurement of aggregate economic statistics. The data also offer researchers a look inside the “black box” of firms and markets by providing meaningful statistics on economic behavior such as search and information gathering, communication, decision-making, and microlevel transactions. Collaborations with data-oriented firms also create new opportunities to conduct and evaluate randomized experiments.
Economic theory plays an important role in the analysis of large data sets with complex structure. It can be difficult to organize and study this type of data (or even to decide which variables to construct) without a simplifying conceptual framework, which is where economic models become useful. Better data also allow for sharper tests of existing models and tests of theories that had previously been difficult to assess.
Outlook
The advent of big data is already allowing for better measurement of economic effects and outcomes and is enabling novel research designs across a range of topics. Over time, these data are likely to affect the types of questions economists pose, by allowing for more focus on population variation and the analysis of a broader range of economic activities and interactions. We also expect economists to increasingly adopt the large-data statistical methods that have been developed in neighboring fields and that often may complement traditional econometric techniques.
These data opportunities also raise some important challenges. Perhaps the primary one is developing methods for researchers to access and explore data in ways that respect privacy and confidentiality concerns. This is a major issue in working with both government administrative data and private sector firms. Other challenges include developing the appropriate data management and programming capabilities, as well as designing creative and scalable approaches to summarize, describe, and analyze large-scale and relatively unstructured data sets. These challenges notwithstanding, the next few decades are likely to be a very exciting time for economic research.
SUMMARY This paper examines the relationship between so-called ‘Big Data’, the ‘Internet of Things’ (the ‘Internet of People and Things,’ and the ‘Internet of Everything’), and the ‘Internet of Signs.’ In particular, we investigate how the ‘things’ in the ‘Internet of Things’ generate ‘Big Data’, and how both are used to generate semiotic ‘signs’. In addition, we analyse the importance of context in and the relationships between ‘Big Data’, the ‘Internet of Things’, and the ‘Internet of Signs’. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Business leaders recognise the huge opportunities and benefits offered by cyberspace in terms of increasing innovation, collaboration, productivity, competitiveness and customer engagement. Yet the threat from ‘malspace’ – an online environment inhabited by hacker groups, criminal organisations and espionage units – is growing and developing daily. How can organisations strike a balance between the risks and rewards and prepare effectively to counter the growing threats from cyberspace, without losing the potential benefits?
The threat from ‘malspace’ – an online environment inhabited by hacker groups, criminal organisations and espionage units – is growing daily. How can organisations strike a balance between the risks and rewards of doing business online?
No-one is safe from attack, so apart from taking appropriate steps, organisations must embrace uncertainty and develop what might be called ‘cyber-resilience’. Traditional enterprise risk management is now insufficient. Michael de Crespigny of the Information Security Forum (ISF) looks at how cyber-resilience can better position organisations to deal with the threats.
Africa has recently seen explosive growth in information and communication technologies, making cyber crime a reality in this part of the world. This paper investigates the possibility of another increase in cyber crime as a result of the planned increased broadband access for the African continent. Currently, Africa has limited or inadequate action and controls to protect computers and networks, making it both a target of attack as well as a medium to attack other parts of the world. Cyber space threats and trends are a reality as the shortage of IT education and the absence of African languages prevents people from acting on warnings of cyber fraud. To address this problem, people need to be made aware of the threats and trends, and the potential adverse effect it may have on them: the use of pirate copies of software and operating systems increases the threats as no security updates are installed; the lack of standardized procedures can lead to uncertainties about the effectiveness of investigating techniques. An increase in broadband access will give Internet access to more users in Africa, effectively broadening the scope for cyber crime.
European Council Conclusions
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Industry 4.0 and Cybersecurity: Managing Risk in an Age of Connected Production
- Deloitte
Silent Partners: Organized Crime, Irregular Groups, and Nation-States. Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College
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Implementing the Digitising European Industry Actions. FUTURIUM-European Commission
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Cybersecurity in Africa: The Threats and Challenges
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