Data breaches in the medical sector cost the industry an average of 6 billion dollars per year, and as technology continues to evolve exponentially, the Internet of Things (IoT) will only increase opportunities for potential hackers and data breaches to exploit the sector.
As we reported previously, the Orangeworm virus is the first wide-known deliberate attack on medical devices. The entire reasoning behind the launch of Orangeworm is still unknown, however, the virus does give the attacker access to both medical devices and the larger, and more complex, hospital systems the devices are a part of. In essence, the virus has infiltrated systems throughout the world in order to learn and record as much information as possible about each system, presumably in preparation for a widespread attack.
According to Digital Commerce 360 medical devices average a whooping 6.2 vulnerabilities each, with more than 60% also being at the end of their "life" and therefore without available patches or upgrades. So how can you defend against these potential, but oh so likely, IoT medical device attacks?
Understand your vulnerabilities and endpoints by conducting a security assessment on your systems and infrastructure
Segregate devices so, in the case of the inevitable attack, all devices are not compromised
Train your employees! Although this seems like common sense, the majority of cyber breaches are caused by employees, usually unintentionally, and are due to a lack of knowledge regarding cyber threats and detection methods.
For more ideas on protecting your patients and data, check out the full list of tips at Digital Commerce 360.
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