In the medical field, the Internet of Things (IoT) helps make healthcare more convenient, efficient and patient-centered. But devices such as interconnected glucose monitors, insulin pumps, defibrillators with IoT sensors run the risk of carrying unprotected vulnerabilities that could endanger healthcare facilities and even patients.
According to the Medical IoT Research conducted by Capterra for IT professionals working in healthcare, the increasing use of interconnected medical devices causes an increase in cyber attacks in this area. According to the news published on Helpnetsecurity.com, the results of the research reveal that 67 percent of cyber attacks on healthcare services affect patient data and 48 percent affect patient care. This situation is also considered as an indication that the increasing security risks in the sector cause serious problems on patient outcomes and privacy.
ESET Product and Marketing Manager Can Erginkurban evaluated this development as follows: “Smart medical devices are different from normal IoT devices. These medical devices should not be considered general purpose computers such as our laptops or smartphones. They are designed to be extremely reliable as they perform functions that keep the patient alive. However, security-related developments were secondary in this category until recent years. Some smart medical devices, even today, use legacy interfaces and protocols. They do not have protection against tampering over a network. This poses a significant risk even to ordinary people whose insulin pumps or glucose monitors can be remotely controlled, let alone high-profile individuals.
Developers who produce these devices often rely on uncertainty and tend to get defensive about vulnerabilities found in their products, rather than quickly issuing patches for their firmware using the latest information.”
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