Soumitra Bhuyan, an assistant professor of health administration at Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School, is available to discuss healthcare cybersecurity issues and recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Hospitals have become a frequent target for cybercrimes lately. Any public health emergency increases the opportunities for hackers and makes hospitals more vulnerable to such attacks,” said Bhuyan. “Cybersecurity breaches put patient safety at great risk, threaten the hospital’s financial standing, and significantly affect their day to day operations.”

“Cybersecurity is not something that tops the priority list as many hospitals continue to deal with capacity issues and equipment shortage as cases of COVID-19 soar,” he continued. “However, the recent cyber-attack on the U.S Health and Human Services should alert the hospitals that this could come soon. Awareness and proactive measures to prevent a cybersecurity breach and preparing how to handle a breach, if it happens, should be made a part of emergency preparedness plans.”

Bhuyan, a member of the Rutgers Urban & Civic Informatics Lab, is conducting research in health information systems, including cybersecurity issues in hospital and mobile health.

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