The Enigma Moment of Modern Healthcare
Cybersecurity and the cloud: WannaCry (NHS, 2017), Stuxnet, the Vastaamo clinic breach (Finland, 2020).
The chapter draws a parallel between the breaking of the Enigma code in the Second World War and healthcare's present struggle with cybersecurity. Three real cases structure the discussion: the WannaCry attack, which paralyzed British NHS hospitals in 2017; Stuxnet, a landmark of industrial cyber warfare; and the leak of psychiatric records from the Finnish clinic Vastaamo in 2020, one of the most serious exposures of sensitive patient data ever recorded. Together, the cases show why digital security stopped being an IT problem and became a patient safety problem.