Nurse call systems, other medical devices highest risks for cyberattacks: report - McKnight's Senior Living

Nurse call systems, infusion pumps and medication dispensing stations are among the top connected medical devices at greatest vulnerability for cyberattacks, according to newly released research from the cybersecurity company Armis.

IP cameras and printers and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) also are high on the list of risky internet-connected devices used in healthcare settings, investigators report found.

The report analyzed data from Armis Asset Intelligence and Security Platform, which tracks more than three billion assets. Some other report highlights:

“Advances in technology are essential to improve the speed and quality of care delivery as the industry is challenged with a shortage of care providers, but with increasingly connected care comes a bigger attack surface,” Mohammad Waqas, principal solutions architect for Healthcare at Armis, said in a news release. He delivered a presentation on medical device vulnerabilities in April at the HIMSS annual conference in Chicago.

“Protecting every type of connected device, medical, IoT, even the building management systems, with full visibility and continuous contextualized monitoring is a key element to ensuring patient safety,” he added.

The US Food and Drug Administration will soon require medical device makers to include cybersecurity information in their pre-market submissions under a law passed by Congress last year. The FDA has given device makers until Oct. 1 to prepare their cybersecurity plans.