Hackers can control NHS medical aids - Comment from Webroot
June 2019 by Webroot
In response to today’s news regarding hackers being able to target NHS medical equipment, please find a comment from Matt Aldridge, Senior Solutions Architect at Webroot below.
“The healthcare industry remains a prime target for attackers, due to the wealth of data it holds. But advances in technology means that hospitals have a growing array of connected devices, creating a large attack surface, prime for infiltrating. These devices are everywhere from the back office, in medical facilities, and even inside patients. This ultimately means a cyberattack could cause catastrophic disruption to patient care and wellbeing. The disjointed and fragmented nature of the industry means it often lags behind other sectors in the race to defy attackers who can exploit historic weaknesses.
“Every device on a hospital network must be covered by stringent patch management policies and processes, and suppliers must be kept in check to ensure that updates are released regularly and on time when vulnerabilities are found. Vendors should also make it easy and cost effective for updates to be applied. Most importantly, they need to ensure that their product update procedures are highly secure to avoid malicious control software being installed on an otherwise safe device.”