Cyber hygiene concepts for nursing education

Background: The healthcare industry has increasingly been targeted by cybercrime putting patients, organizations, and employees at risk for financial loss and breach of privacy. Malware events compromise system integrity and patient privacy which could lead to delays in treatment, loss of patient data, inability to provide care, and increase in patient harm. In addition, these attacks may also compromise private and personal information for those targeted.Objective: Nurses represent a large portion of frontline healthcare workers and are uniquely positioned to help prevent cyber-attacks. Nursing curriculum should include education about the risks to patient safety from cybercrime and the nurse's role in preventing cybercrime. Nursing education has focused on hygiene for patient safety. Adding cyber hygiene to the essential practices of pre-licensure and advanced practice nurses is a first step to protecting patients, organizations, and employees from the repercussions of a healthcare cyber-attack.