The issue of security of medical devices is an increasingly complex problem to analyze. With all forms of risk problems, there is always a need to find the perfect balance between safety and financial efficiency. The use of medical devices is a perfect example of this balancing act.
On one side you have the need to build products, services, and processes that are simple, cost-effective, and manageable. On the other end of the balance is security, safety, and risk reduction.
Medical devices that are connected to the human body have proven to be enormously beneficial, but there have been proven security vulnerabilities. A process exists that can effectively hijack machines that automatically provide insulin to patients. This has been documented in this video.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have found vulnerabilities with implantable medical devices. The use of wireless technology for IMDs (Implantable Medical Devices) is on the rise. The benefits of using wireless technology is very beneficial because software modification to an existing implanted device would require surgery. However it is possible to hijack data from the device, or even worse: modify the device without proper authentication.
Since modifying the existing device is pretty much out of question, they built a small machine that can jam the radio signals and block any access to the device. The machine is small enough to wear as a neckless and has been tested and proven to be effective. Click here to read the article.
This isn’t news to everyone and researchers have been hard at work finding problems and developing potential solutions. There is an organization called the Strategic Healthcare IT Advance Research Projects on Security (SHARPS) that has been developing research material on the issue of medical device security. One of their articles examines the insulin pump problem through a risk analysis based process. You can find that article here.
The risk of potential cyber attacks on the human body might be low at the moment, but there is defiantly vulnerabilities that could increase in the future.
