Health care is becoming more upgraded from the past by staying connected through digital connections. These medical devices provide a smoother function aiding both the doctor and the patient. However, cyber criminals have crept their way into the health tracking systems making them unreliable anymore.
Connected medical devices play a vital role in hospitals today. Their significance is a rise in innovation. They can give better health status and faster results without much anticipation. Thus, these devices are the biggest contribution to the health sector.
However, the security of these medical devices is questionable. Patients’ lives are at stake which also makes the doctor lose their credibility. Cybercriminals can easily find their way into these devices to access information of patients. If the hacker has malicious intend then there can serious consequences. There have been cases of ransomware attacks shutting down an entire hospital. Even accessing an MRI scan machine can cause severe implications that are equivalent to death threats. These criminals aim to utilize these devices by locking them down and demanding payment in order to restore access. Instances of a doctor turning away patients due to ransomware are terribly heartbreaking.
The information and data of patients in these devices simply prove the vulnerability of health care sectors. The patient records can be used as collateral damage for profit-motivated hackers. They use these records to make millions. A single medical device can be a pivot point to attack an entire hospital. Patient data is much more valuable than any other information for they contain their medical records and other personal information that these hackers can use to sell it off on the black market.
The idea of these hackers accessing medical devices malevolently and alter patient records or change the dosage or worse, shut them down is threatening. Hackers can not only cause damage to the health records of the patients but to personal life as well. The data contains information about patient whereabouts and when these are sold on the dark web, people can be criminally targeted as well.
The health sector contributes a major part in the service industry. Without health care centers we all could be reversing life to a miserable state. However, at this point connected medical devices are at huge risk, affecting the hospitals and people equally.
