How Medical Device Hacks Endanger Patient Safety

Arxan’s infographic on healthcare IoT shows wearables, implantable medical technologies, and hospital equipment as three types of devices with their own specific vulnerabilities, including patient data theft. As the company points out on their page for protecting healthcare IoT applications, the FDA found that 400,000 hospitals used infusion pumps deemed to be remotely-hackable last year, merging cybersecurity risks with patient safety hazards. Blocking unauthorized access to hospital networks starts with guarding information, but it goes beyond protecting patients’ records. This includes preventing cryptographic key exposure in the embedded apps of the medical devices that contain extremely sensitive patient information, like how much insulin a diabetic patient needs per hour. Remote hacking and ransomware incidents, and even discoveries of vulnerable devices, stress the need for protecting hospital network data at all levels, including the binary logic of software that could be manipulated if a network’s security is compromised.

Arxan is a company that focuses on application attack-prevention and protection products for Internet of Things and other technologies, including mobile and desktop platforms.