Multi-Cloud Security Challenges in Healthcare: Designing A Unified Cyber Risk Management Strategy

• Author(s): Eniola Akinola Odedina
• Paper ID: 1708312
• Page: 1078-1090
• Published Date: 31-08-2024
• Published In: Iconic Research And Engineering Journals
• Publisher: IRE Journals
• e-ISSN: 2456-8880
• Volume/Issue: Volume 8 Issue 2 August-2024

Abstract

Multi-cloud computing is gradually being adopted by the healthcare industry to be more agile, lower operational costs, and take advantage of specialized services offered by clouds. However, with this digital transformation come heavy security challenges, more so in terms of managing sensitive patient data across different cloud environments. Complexity is introduced into multi-cloud architectures, such as the prospect for inconsistent security policies, attacker perimeters, and significant hurdles to making their regulatory obligations. Healthcare data is highly coveted among cybercriminals, and the stakes for their confidentiality, integrity, and availability couldn't be higher. Organizations carrying out operations with several cloud service providers (CSPs) are also faced with these critical challenges: sovereignty of data, inconsistencies in identity and access management (IAM), misconfigurations, and third-party risks. Traditional security paradigms have, more often than not, failed to present an integrated approach to such challenges, therefore leaving gaps in their protection and visibility. The paper discusses the unique cybersecurity challenges of healthcare multi-cloud adoption and accentuates the need for an integrated approach to cyber risk management. Such a strategy should entail centralized governance coupled with dynamic risk assessment and automation of compliance controls. Establishments of need include Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), a unified IAM model grounded on Zero Trust principles, robust encryption practices, and coordinated incident response planning. Moreover, the compliance must harbor with the changes in healthcare regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and HITECH. This holistic cyber risk management will provide a better facility to healthcare organizations to protect electronic protected health information (ePHI), build trust with patients and assure operational resilience. The future for healthcare cloud security is in frameworks that are unified, proactive, scalable, and adaptable to a landscape of everchanging threats.

Keywords

Multi-cloud computing, healthcare cybersecurity, unified risk management, Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Identity and Access Management (IAM), Zero Trust Architecture, data sovereignty, regulatory compliance (HIPAA, GDPR, HITECH), electronic protected health information (ePHI), incident response, cloud misconfiguration, cyber risk strategy.

Citations

IRE Journals:
Eniola Akinola Odedina "Multi-Cloud Security Challenges in Healthcare: Designing A Unified Cyber Risk Management Strategy" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 8 Issue 2 2024 Page 1078-1090

IEEE:
Eniola Akinola Odedina "Multi-Cloud Security Challenges in Healthcare: Designing A Unified Cyber Risk Management Strategy" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 8(2)