An increasing problem worldwide is the number of people living with and dying of critical,
chronic diseases. One of these diseases is type 1 diabetes, which, as of today, is uncurable yet
treatable through careful and precise monitoring. Using the Internet of Things (IoT) is one of
the most efficient ways to monitor diabetes and is also said to improve the life-quality of people
with diabetes. However, the great potential of IoT in diabetes treatment is followed by various
challenged factors regarding privacy and security. Cyberattacks can affect not only the
individual patient but everyone connected to the IT infrastructure of the hacked device. Existing
reports show cyberattacks against the Norwegian healthcare sector have increased by 72% over
the last year, resulting in about 450 attacks each week. Still, diabetic patients tend to trust their
devices to be safe and are willing to take the risk as they consider their medical data as not
interesting to cybercriminals. Healthcare personnel's lack of knowledge about information
security and privacy best practice is reported to be an entry point for cybercriminals to gain
access to critical IT systems. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the
potentially improved life-quality from using diabetes IoT and the challenges regarding privacy
and cyberthreats, including the perspective of three different Norwegian stakeholder groups:
diabetic patients (type 1), healthcare personnel working with diabetes patients, and industry
representatives within healthcare and security. Findings suggest that neither patients nor
healthcare personnel is concerned about patient privacy or threats against diabetes IoT, despite
the increased cyberthreats in the healthcare sector. It further indicates a pressing matter for a
discussion about data ownership generated by IoT and a revision of privacy regulations that
make it easier for all Norwegian healthcare regions to interpret, comply, and act upon equally,
to utilize the technology available and ensure diabetes patients all over the country have the
same opportunities when it comes to patient care
