The Covid-19 pandemic had devastating effects on our lives over the past year, but not all the changes it forced us to face are negative. In particular, it led to a major technology push and accelerated the digitisation process in several sectors, including healthcare. In the medical field, Digital Therapeutics are an innovative proposal for treating, managing and preventing a broad spectrum of behavioural, mental, and physical diseases and disorders. They provide therapeutic interventions directly to patients using evidence-based and clinically-evaluated software.These products received a significant prompt during the pandemic as many stakeholders realised their great usefulness and potential. Digital Therapeutics products are expected to become widespread in the coming years and could change the therapeutic approach to different diseases. A great effort has been put into demonstrating the efficacy of Digital Therapeutics, ensuring their therapeutic value and making them accessible through insurance reimbursement plans. However, there are still some challenges to overcome for their development. The technological profile and cybersecurity have not yet been fully investigated. To date, there are few specific guidelines and technical requirements to ensure a good security standard for these apps. In this Thesis, we present modelling and analysis of Digital Therapeutics cybersecurity to broaden the debate regarding their adoption. In particular, we investigate the specific characteristics of these products to define a threat model suitable for them, and we test this model on a significant sample of applications. Through analysis, we evaluate the current security status of these applications, identifying the most vulnerable components. Eventually, we outline more specific cybersecurity guidelines for Digital Therapeutics development based on the identified characteristics and results.
La pandemia da Covid-19 ha avuto effetti devastanti sulle nostre vite nell'ultimo anno, ma non tutti i cambiamenti che ci ha costretto ad affrontare sono stati negativi. In particolare, vi è stata una grande spinta tecnologica che ha accelerato il processo di digitalizzazione in diversi settori, tra cui quello sanitario. In campo medico, le Terapie Digitali sono una proposta innovativa per trattare, gestire e prevenire un ampio spettro di malattie e disturbi comportamentali, mentali e fisici. Esse forniscono interventi terapeutici direttamente ai pazienti utilizzando un software basato sull'evidenza e valutato clinicamente. Questi prodotti hanno ricevuto una spinta molto significativa durante la pandemia, poiché molti investitori si sono resi conto del loro immenso potenziale. Si prevede, infatti, che troveranno ampia diffusione nei prossimi anni, cambiando l'approccio terapeutico a diverse malattie. Un grande sforzo è stato fatto, recentemente, per dimostrare l'efficacia delle Terapie Digitali, assicurarne il valore terapeutico e renderle rimborsabili dalle assicurazioni. Tuttavia, ci sono ancora molte sfide da superare per il loro sviluppo. Il profilo tecnologico e la sicurezza informatica delle Terapie Digitali non sono ancora stati investigati a fondo. Ad oggi, ci sono poche linee guida specifiche e requisiti tecnici per garantire un buon standard di sicurezza per queste applicazioni. In questa tesi, presentiamo un modello per l'analisi della cybersecurity delle Terapie Digitali per contribuire al dibattito riguardo la loro diffusione. In particolare, indaghiamo le caratteristiche peculiari di questi prodotti, per definire un modello di minaccia specifico e testarlo su un campione significativo di applicazioni. Grazie a diverse analisi, valutiamo lo stato attuale della sicurezza di queste applicazioni, identificando i componenti più vulnerabili. Infine, delineiamo delle linee guida di cybersecurity più specifiche per lo sviluppo delle Terapie Digitali sulla base delle caratteristiche e dei risultati identificati.
Cybersecurity of digital therapeutics : analysis and modelling of mobile applications
Ricci, Arianna
2020/2021
Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic had devastating effects on our lives over the past year, but not all the changes it forced us to face are negative. In particular, it led to a major technology push and accelerated the digitisation process in several sectors, including healthcare. In the medical field, Digital Therapeutics are an innovative proposal for treating, managing and preventing a broad spectrum of behavioural, mental, and physical diseases and disorders. They provide therapeutic interventions directly to patients using evidence-based and clinically-evaluated software.These products received a significant prompt during the pandemic as many stakeholders realised their great usefulness and potential. Digital Therapeutics products are expected to become widespread in the coming years and could change the therapeutic approach to different diseases. A great effort has been put into demonstrating the efficacy of Digital Therapeutics, ensuring their therapeutic value and making them accessible through insurance reimbursement plans. However, there are still some challenges to overcome for their development. The technological profile and cybersecurity have not yet been fully investigated. To date, there are few specific guidelines and technical requirements to ensure a good security standard for these apps. In this Thesis, we present modelling and analysis of Digital Therapeutics cybersecurity to broaden the debate regarding their adoption. In particular, we investigate the specific characteristics of these products to define a threat model suitable for them, and we test this model on a significant sample of applications. Through analysis, we evaluate the current security status of these applications, identifying the most vulnerable components. Eventually, we outline more specific cybersecurity guidelines for Digital Therapeutics development based on the identified characteristics and results.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2021_10_Ricci.pdf
Open Access dal 17/09/2022
Descrizione: Tesi completa
Dimensione
2.23 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
2.23 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in POLITesi sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/10589/179532