Security of mobile health (mHealth) systems

Abstract

mHealth is a growing field that enables individuals to monitor their health status and facilitates the sharing of medical records with physicians and between hospitals anytime and anywhere. Unfortunately, smartphones and mHealth applications are still vulnerable to a wide range of security threats due to their portability and weaknesses in management and design. Nevertheless, mHealth users are becoming more aware of the security and privacy issues related to their personal healthcare information. This survey discusses the security and privacy issues in current mHealth systems and their impact. We also discuss the latest threats, attacks and proposed countermeasures that could support secure sensitive mHealth systems. Finally, we conclude with a brief summary of open security problems that still need to be addressed in the mHealth field.