An Expanding Threat Spectrum for Health-Related Information Technologies

Amidst recent data breaches at a number of health insurance companies, a more robust cybersecurity posture for such companies is imperative. But as health information technologies grow in ubiquity and sophistication, the threat spectrum will also expand, and in ways that may make the dangers resulting from data breach pale by comparison. This talk will describe some of the new threats (and motivations for threat actors) that will be faced by health information technologies in the future, barriers to improving the cybersecurity of these technologies, and guidelines for improving the cybersecurity afforded by new health information technologies.

Dr. Herb Lin is senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, both at Stanford University. His research interests relate broadly to policy-related dimensions of cybersecurity and cyberspace, and he is particularly interested in and knowledgeable about the use of offensive operations in cyberspace, especially as instruments of national policy. In addition to his positions at Stanford University, he is Chief Scientist, Emeritus for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies, where he served from 1990 through 2014 as study director of major projects on public policy and information technology, and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar and Senior Fellow in Cybersecurity (not in residence) at the Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies in the School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He received his doctorate in physics from MIT.