A new global study states that half of the devices connected to the Internet in hospitals - including life-saving medical equipment - are not properly secured and vulnerable to break-ins.
The study, conducted by the information security company Cynerio, collected information from more than ten billion online devices in more than 300 hospitals and clinics in different countries, and the results are quite dismal.
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According to the data, the most vulnerable medical device is the infusion pump - a device used to introduce fluids into the patient's blood system.
Advanced versions of infusion pumps are able to connect to the hospital database, and get the right fluid doses from there.
The study found that no less than 73 percent of the pumps tested were unsafe!
According to the researchers, break-ins to such devices, which are directly connected to patients, could theoretically change their doses and even stop treatment.
Other medical devices that are at the top of the list of online equipment exposed to burglary are patient monitors (which show their heart rate and respiration rate) and ultrasound devices.
The soul machine at Kaplan Hospital.
Illustration photo, photo: Liron Moldovan
It is no secret that medical institutions have recently been a major target for hackers.
As you may recall, only last October did Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera experience a well-publicized cyber attack (in this case, no medical equipment was hacked, but the intrusion was into the hospital's computer system and the burglars demanded ransom to release it).
Either way, Cynerio emphasizes that it is very easy to overcome the security vulnerabilities of online medical devices, by choosing strong passwords (and definitely not keeping the default password of the devices), and installing the latest software versions.
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