UD’s free 3-day healthcare cybersecurity conference starts Sept. 10

As patient files become more digitized, cybersecurity in the healthcare industry has become essential. There’s the issue of patient privacy, of course, but a cyber break-in can cause a huge amount of damage if thieves steal patient data and sell it for the purpose of identity theft — not to mention that fact that many modern medical devices send data via complex network systems.

Advancing Healthcare Cybersecurity Knowledge, a three-day conference sponsored by the University of Delaware’s Cybersecurity Initiative and College of Health Sciences runs from Sept. 10–12. The event will offer both students and community members a free opportunity to learn from cybersecurity experts, healthcare IT specialists and medical professionals.

Topics will include protecting patient health information, device cybersecurity, security threats and cyberdefense best practices.

On Wednesday, Sept. 12, the day will be filled with deep-dive workshops about the psychology of cyber-attackers — how and why they’re successful and a dissection several real-life attacks.

The lineup includes:

• Michael J. Maksymow, Jr., Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Beebe Healthcare in Lewes
• Heather Flannery, Health Circle Global Lead for ConsenSys and cofounder and the Board Chair of Blockchain in Healthcare Global
• Julie Connolly, Principal Cybersecurity Engineer for The MITRE Corporation
• John Gomez, CEO and founder, Sensato Cybersecurity Solutions
• Dr. Susan Conaty-Buck, certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Assistant Professor and Informatics Nurse Researcher at the University of Delaware School of Nursing

The conference will be held at University of Delaware’s John M. Clayton Hall in Newark, and is free and open to members of the public (though seating is limited). Light breakfast will be offered along with lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday.