{"id":58234,"date":"2019-07-18T10:36:24","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T14:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=58234"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:39:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:39:24","slug":"protecting-e-health","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/protecting-e-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Researchers Protect Our E-Health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Carleton Researchers Protect Our E-Health\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

The rise of e-health has been rapid. At any given moment, millions of medical devices are keeping patients in constant contact with their health care providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These devices and the data they generate can provide a 24\/7 record of a patient\u2019s symptoms and vital signs. They make health care more efficient by letting patients know when they need to get to a hospital \u2014 and when they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But no connected device is ever fully secure, and medical devices are no exception. When hackers infiltrate e-health systems, lives literally hang in the balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton cybersecurity researchers are working to ensure that these devices and this data are more secure. Systems and Computer Engineering<\/a> Prof. Mohamed Ibnkahla, the NSERC\/Cisco Senior Industrial Research Chair in Sensor Networks for the Internet of Things (IoT), is leading a three-year research project that seeks to identify vulnerabilities in the systems we use to deliver e-health and recommend ways that cyber threats can be mitigated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Prof. Mohamed Ibnkahla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSystem-level Security for IoT-enabled e-Health Systems\u201d is a $2-million project funded through Defence Research and Development Canada<\/a>\u2019s Canadian Safety and Security Program<\/a>. The project has brought Carleton researchers together with partners from the Children\u2019s Hospital of Eastern Ontario<\/a> (CHEO), Macadamian<\/a>, CANImmunize<\/a>, Twelvedot<\/a> and the National Research Council of Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCybersecurity is part of national security,\u201d says Ibnkahla. \u201cE-health is more efficient, but more vulnerable. The threat can be anything. An individual person can be attacked, or the whole system can be attacked. To model the threats, we need to track what\u2019s going on below the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Integrated Approach to E-Health Security<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To keep pace with the constant evolution of threats, the research project is seeking to establish ways to continuously monitor the entire system.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cSecurity has been always been modular or scattered,\u201d says Ibnkahla. \u201cNetwork security, physical devices security, data security and user access to the system: all of these areas have been addressed separately. In this project, we\u2019re assessing gaps in the system, including humans and interactions. Security is not just one fix \u2014 it\u2019s a whole process and procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Even if a medical device manufacturer has followed every security standard when designing and manufacturing a device, those standards can\u2019t anticipate every possible threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen the device goes to the external world \u2014 to real life \u2014 it\u2019s a jungle,\u201d Ibnkahla says. \u201cYou put a medical device in a hospital or with a patient and it becomes vulnerable to all types of attacks. A company would not have thought of these particular threats. They designed it according to the standards in a test lab environment, but no one knows what\u2019s going on in this jungle of the IoT. It\u2019s completely unpredictable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Multidisciplinary Search for Solutions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The complexity of the problem demands a multidisciplinary approach. Ibnkahla brings expertise in IoT infrastructure, networking and security to the project, and he has teamed up with fellow Systems and Computer Engineering Prof. Jason Jaskolka, who specializes in security assessment, and Information Technology<\/a> Prof. Ashraf Matrawy, who specializes in network security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to secure medical devices, it\u2019s critical to know how health care providers are actually using them. Ibnkahla\u2019s team is working with medical and IT teams from CHEO, e-health software developer Macadamian, medical device app builder CANimmunize and security threat modeling and assessment company Twelvedot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve been developing ways to monitor the \u201cthreat surface\u201d on a continuous basis, and providing a best-practices guide to help hospitals, clinicians and patients to ensure they\u2019re being cyber safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the biggest threats to system security can be relatively easily solved, according to Ibnkahla.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cNinety per cent of problems can be avoided by simple procedures,\u201d he says. \u201cFor example, don\u2019t leave your device unattended or don\u2019t connect to public WiFi. Many problems can be eliminated by educating people. That can eliminate 90 per cent of the problem.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThe other 10 per cent is probably out of the control of patients. You can improve security without a large budget. It\u2019s not nothing or everything. Through this project, we\u2019ll try to educate people that you cannot compromise on security and that many security threats can be addressed, even with a small budget.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rise of e-health has been rapid. At any given moment, millions of medical devices are keeping patients in constant contact with their health care providers. These devices and the data they generate can provide a 24\/7 record of a patient\u2019s symptoms and vital signs. They make health care more efficient by letting patients know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":58237,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[54,13,1931],"cu_story_tag":[1918,1925],"class_list":["post-58234","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-health-wellness","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_type-social-innovation","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-engineering-and-design","cu_story_tag-research"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/58234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/58234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97314,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/58234\/revisions\/97314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=58234"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=58234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}