With the rise of connected devices and remote delivery in the healthcare sector, the potential impact of cybersecurity breaches has escalated to unprecedented levels. These vulnerabilities could lead to the compromise of clinical data and personal health information, undermine the integrity and accuracy of transmitted data, or even disrupt critical processes and services. There is an urgent need for more robust medical device security and trust management, including strong authentication capabilities, device operational assurance, and automated threat detection. Prioritising situational security awareness is also essential to address these evolving threats.

In response to this challenge, a significant collaboration is underway between two EU projects, SECANT (GA No. 101019645) and ENTRUST (GA No. 101095634), aiming to advance cybersecurity in the healthcare sector. This partnership is focused on joint dissemination activities, sharing results, and collaborative networking to strengthen cybersecurity measures, directly addressing the growing threat of cyberattacks on healthcare systems and devices.

From one hand, SECANT (SECurity And privacy protectioN in Internet of Things devices) enhances digital security, privacy, and personal data protection within complex ICT infrastructures in healthcare sector. In fact, SECANT delivers a holistic framework for cybersecurity risk assessment, addresses both human and technical risk factors and bolsters the overall cybersecurity landscape. The proposed solution’s effectiveness and versatility of this EU-H2020 project has been validated in four realistic pilot use case scenarios applied in the healthcare ecosystem:

1. Protecting the connected ambulance of the future
2. Cyber security for connected medical devices and mobile applications
3. Health data protection in the healthcare supply chain
4. Cyber Security Training

“As an EU-funded project aiming to support health organisations in the fight against cyber threats, it was significant for SECANT to connect with similar projects to enhance this goal and maximise engagement with stakeholders in the healthcare industry. Our consortium is thrilled to collaborate with ENTRUST, identify shared areas of collaboration, and amplify the impact of both projects.”, says Christiana Kyperounta, SECANT Dissemination Manager from Eight Bells.

From the other hand, ENTRUST, sitting at the forefront of digital transformation for the Healthcare domain, it moves into the next generation of Connected Medical Devices (CMD), where the expansion of connectivity and data processing capabilities and resources at the edge have revolutionized the health sector by improving outcomes, lowering healthcare costs, and enhancing patient safety. The ENTRUST innovations not only disrupt the CMD value chain and impact all stakeholders by putting dynamic trust assessment as a new dimension of quality of a devices’ operational profile but are also a significant driver to overcome existing gaps in the security of such complex systems. The added value and effectiveness of the ENTRUST Framework will be evaluated in four real-world use cases:

1. CMSs in operating room
2. Connected device in patient’s home
3. Connected devices in hospitals 
4. Wearables for health monitoring.  

“As part of the Future Needs team of marketing specialists, designers, journalists, and researchers, I believe in the power of collaboration. Therefore, I am excited about ENTRUST joining forces with the SECANT project! With cybercriminals increasingly targeting the healthcare sector, our focus will extend beyond analytics. We will engage in collaborative efforts to highlight how these two innovative projects address this critical issue, maximising the impact of their outcomes”, says Egle Joneliunaite, ENTRUST Dissemination Leader from Future Needs.

The collaboration between SECANT and ENTRUST is set to expand into non-scientific industry publications, where insights and advancements from both projects will be shared. Moreover, additional joint dissemination efforts will be pursued to maximize the reach and impact of the projects.

Learn More

For more information on the two projects:

SECANT website: https://secant-project.eu/   │Channels:  Linkedin, X

ENTRUST website: https://www.entrust-he.eu/  │Channels:  LinkedIn, X