While it comes with numerous benefits, 5G can also make the healthcare industry more vulnerable to cyberattacks

May 24, 2021 14:02 GMT  ·  By

5G has been looming on the horizon for years, yet its industry-revolutionizing potential is just out of reach for healthcare providers and customers. The restrictions will not be in effect for long and 5G will gain more availability in the near future, according to Matthew Doyle, the COO & Head of Investor Relations, Chicago Pacific Founders.

The arrival of 5G can broaden the healthcare industry's potential in ways we could never have imagined a decade ago. The downside is that it can also surface new security threats to patients and providers.

Thanks to its super-fast mobile speeds, 5G has the potential to have a hugely positive effect on the healthcare industry. Whereas 4G could send data to and from 100,000 devices per square kilometer, 5G's hyper-fast download speeds would enable data transmission for a million devices over the same distance.

Healthcare organizations can now rely on faster and more secure Internet connections for more medical devices and objects at any given time thanks to modern wireless technology. It also allows remote areas to easily link health services.

It is estimated that two areas will benefit more from 5G than the others: virtual reality and telemedicine. Although physicians have begun to investigate the use of VR and AR in extensive consults, their efforts have been significantly hampered due to limited 4G LTE connectivity.

With 4G, latency, or the time it takes between submitting a data request to a device and receiving it, is significantly higher, and therefore more restricting. In comparison, 5G latency is more than ten times faster than current speeds.

5G security implications are noticeable 

Then again, there is always a price to be paid. Although 5G is widely acknowledged to be more stable than 4G, the system still poses a few significant risks.

In November 2019, a joint research effort between Purdue University and University of Iowa exposed 11 major vulnerabilities in studied 5G networks. According to the report, these security flaws could allow bad actors to spy on and disrupt system operations, as well as launch bogus emergency alerts.

How can we get out of this predicament? The obvious solution is to devote more resources, people, and technology to improving cybersecurity planning in the healthcare sector. This is especially important since such practices are currently lacking. Moreover, healthcare companies must invest in IT to create a full-fledged, validated strategy for dealing with the cybersecurity threats presented by 5G.