Abstract

Research findings have revealed that our world today is greatly influenced by the digital cyberspace and the corresponding information flow resulting in huge societal and economic impacts. Cyberspace offers an imagined place or notional realm in which electronic information exists or is exchanged. The explosion of the Internet has placed increasing demands on businesses, industries, commerce, government, education, entertainment and health, thereby creating vulnerabilities within the cyberspace and increasing criminal, hostile actions and potential threats. In the health sector, application of Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs) provide a means to sustain patient safety and care while allowing better efficiency in the exchange of information, but with the risk of privacy violation and identity theft. In view of the foregoing, developing economies especially in sub-Saharan Africa, seem reluctant to key into this aspect of healthcare management, which has harmed greatly certain initiatives to implement and sustain healthcare schemes. Whereas consensus efforts have been made to stem the tide, such as the exploration of threat combative mechanisms such as cryptography; a technique that can maintain authentication, integrity, availability, confidentiality, identification and privacy of data by encryption and decryption, the cyber-security war cannot be said to have been won. Other security means involve the integration of privacy settings into hardware and the use of biometrics. This research focuses on the various challenges that exist in today's cyberspace, especially the impact observed in the medical and healthcare field, with respect to securing information and harnessing steps, that could be implemented to mitigate and if possible, totally eradicate the causes and effects, and consequently suggest action steps which developing economies can adopt in implementing robust EHR.