For over a decade, we warned the healthcare industry this was coming. They ignored us. Their sole focus was HIPAA compliance — checking regulatory boxes rather than securing critical systems. We told them that system and service availability attacks were coming too. They didn’t care — until they were hit, and hospitals could no longer process new patients or handle billing.
The gravest threat are attacks on critical medical devices and the infrastructures that support patient care. That moment has arrived. We now stand on that precipice.
Will the healthcare industry finally take appropriate action, or will their silence be deafening?
In this particular case, on January 30, 2025, the FDA confirmed what we feared: attackers can remotely control specific patient monitors and cause them to work in unintended ways. A backdoor exists, providing attackers a direct entry point into hospital networks that could bypass primary network defenses. Additionally, these devices are gathering sensitive patient data and exfiltrating it outside the network into the hands of unauthorized and potentially malicious actors.
These capabilities align perfectly with malicious attackers’ goals — disrupting operations, infiltrating networks, and stealing sensitive data. And this is just the beginning. Expect more vulnerabilities in medical devices, including those that have direct impacts on patient health and safety.
Cybersecurity is more important than ever in the healthcare sector — it will become a matter of life and death!
Read the FDA alert: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/cybersecurity-vulnerabilities-certain-patient-monitors-contec-and-epsimed-fda-safety-communication
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