Medical data security: Are you informed or afraid?

Practical application of security measures severely hampers the level of security afforded to medical data in Australia. Whilst the reasons for medical data security are widely understood, there is little published information on how to tackle even basic security challenges for medical practice in Australia. Research suggests that there is an underestimation of the potential threats by medical practitioners; hence there is sufficient reason to promote development of tools to assist medical practice with technical issues they are unfamiliar with. This paper discusses the lack of threat realisation and provides a process for how security may be improved by those who are responsible for it. The process includes a framework for risk assessment and its practical implementation to make medical data in Australia secure.

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