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Computer Viruses Are "Rampant" on Medical Devices

A major part of the problem is that a lot of specialty-product code is being written in a vacuum... on the assumption (or ignorance) that nobody "out there" would ever try to attack or exploit the code. Those concerns aren't even on the designers' horizon. If the idea does seem to occur to developers, it appears there is a total reliance on "somebody else" (the network, the OS, etc, etc) to block malicious intrusions. Such naivete is not turning out well - as is always the case.
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reply to Name Game
Many Hospital Medical Devices More Badly Infected Than the Patients They Monitor

Even in the best hospitals there is a danger of acquiring vicious bugs like flesh-eating bacteria, pneumonia or even a new strain of tuberculosis. MIT’s Technology Review blog reports that medical ficilities nationwide are dealing with are entirely new class of bug:malware.

• Article

Hospital Medical Devices 'Rampant' With Computer Viruses

quote:

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If you have a loved one in hospital, or going in yourself soon, you might not want to read this.
It’s not just microscopic viruses that hospitals need to be worried about. Computer viruses are turning out to be a real problem too.

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reply to Name Game
This is why:

In a typical example, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, 664 pieces of medical equipment are running on older Windows operating systems that manufactures will not modify or allow the hospital to change—even to add antivirus software—because of disagreements over whether modifications could run afoul of U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory reviews, Fu says.

Yup. As I recall both the FDA and FAA require products to be re certified if they're modified in any way. That would include adding A/V etc. Due to the cost and time involved that won't happen.
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Don't feed trolls--it only makes them grow!

reply to Name Game
The way I see it, this is just the manufacturers being lazy and cheap.

They're probably using Windows on the devices because it's easy to code for, cutting down the time they have to spend developing software for the devices.

What they really ought to do is write their own purpose-specific operating system, or a custom build of Linux.

Windows is simply a bad choice for devices that can not receive regular OS and anti-malware updates but can are at risk of infection from the usual means. In contrast, a custom Linux OS can be made virtually bullet-proof without the need for constant updates.

Yes, it's going to cost them more to develop software this way, but in the end it's probably the best thing to do.

reply to Name Game
Malware and Medical Devices: hospitals really are unhealthy places…

• »blog.eset.com/2012/10/18/malware···y-places

reply to angussf

reply to Name Game
To see it from another angle, try stuffing an average router in someones chest.

reply to Snowy

said by Snowy:

said by angussf:

This is why:

In a typical example, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston,

BIDMC is clean place to learn/work.
Years ago my employment there was abruptly terminated one particularly slow evening shift when a bet with a nurse, a cow, an elevator & the 6th floor of the hospital had an almost harmonic convergence.
They have great security too

Did that ICU WinXP cow have a name ?
You should have blamed it all on SPD mold or large magnets in the Monitor.

»www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36089873/ns···ehavior/
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»www.gladiator-antivirus.com/