It sounds like something right out of a movie, but now, hackers could be targeting hospitals. The Food and Drug Administration recently advised hospitals to stop using a medical device over fears that cyber crooks could take control of them.
If you end up in the hospital, the last thing you want to worry about is a hacker gaining access to the medical device you’re hooked up to, but cyber expert, Kevin Boynton, with The Computer Doctor of Richmond, says it could happen. “If it is connected to the internet it is vulnerable no matter what it is,” Boynton says.
The FDA says hospitals should stop using a machine that regulates medicine in IV drips. The agency says the devices made by Hospira, which is now owned by Pfizer, is vulnerable to hackers. The concern is that cyber crooks can gain access to the hospital’s network and change the dosage the pump delivers.
There are no reports of a hacker actually being able to pull this off, and the FDA says the machines are no longer being made or distributed. While patients should be aware, our cyber experts say there is no reason to be alarmed. “I personally don’t see a terrorist organization trying to do this a on a large scale because there is a lot of gateways that they would have to get through. Ultimately, first of all, they would have to get through the hospital’s network and then the hospital would have to have these pumps and then the hospitals would have to have these pumps on their network,” Boynton explains. For the full article click here
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