Security researchers and experts have revealed that thousands of
different medical devices are vulnerable to hackers, who could then take
control of the machines or steal patient information. The study showed
that many instruments in hospitals, such as radiology devices or MRI
scanners, were at risk of attack.
Using specialist search engines
to look for devices that are connected to the internet, a pair of
researchers were able to access details of more than 68,000 vulnerable
systems across a range of health groups and manufacturers. They also
demonstrated that hackers are actively trying to infiltrate medical
systems using a honeypot trap to see how many attacks it would be
subjected to.
“Medical devices should not be available on the public internet. They should be behind multiple layers of protection,” said security researcher Ken Munro. “Based
on their research, we can see that hackers will have a go at devices
that are clearly critical medical systems. That is scary, if
unsurprising. What is even scarier is that the research shows that some
medical devices have already been compromised.”
