Institutionalizing Trust in Healthcare Cybersecurity: A Qualitative Analysis of Cyber Assurance and Investment Readiness

Abstract

In India’s fast digitizing healthcare sector, these vulnerabilities are fast becoming evident, as the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks are increasing. Although more people are becoming aware of the need for cybersecurity programs, most institutions have low cybersecurity maturity characterized with disjointed controls, disjointed architectures, and strongly enforced policies. The sector’s dependence on sensitive patient data, IoT devices and digital health platforms makes these gaps especially concerning. This article fills an urgent need for strategic, governance led response to cybercrime by introducing a concept of cyber assurance which is a trustcentric mechanism that certifies over time the effectiveness, continuity and institutional accountability of a cybersecurity framework. Cyber assurance can mean more than compliance, as it signifies resilience, internal governance and confidence on the part of shareholders. Using a qualitative methodology, the study utilizes semi-structured interviews with 15 cybersecurity experts from hospitals, health-tech firms and regulatory consultancies. Systematic inequalities in cybersecurity preparation emerge, dependent on the awareness of leadership, progress of regulations, and shifting expectations of investors, based on the thematic analysis. This transition of cyber assurance practice from checkbox compliance to proactive assurance, and the notion that cyber assurance has become an important strategic enabler to attract the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and protect institutional credibility in global markets, is a notable trend for FDI attraction. The contribution of this paper is a sectoral Cyber Assurance Policy Framework proposed for India's healthcare ecosystem. It promotes alignment of governance, continual monitoring and national level certification mechanisms as well as third-party security audits. Practicality of these insights for actionable roadmaps for policymakers, investors and healthcare leaders seeking to create a digital trust, operational resilience and long term accountability contrast for India’s healthcare infrastructure. In addition, the study plays a timely and policy relevant role in the broader discourse on policies for achieving cybersecurity preparedness in emerging digital health systems.