This post was originally published on ZPE Systems
The healthcare industry is one of the largest adopters of “Internet of Things” (IoT) technology, using internet-enabled devices to monitor patient health, dispense lifesaving medication, perform medical procedures, and more. Some examples of IoT devices used in healthcare include insulin pumps, pacemakers, heart rate monitors, and intracardiac defibrillators. These devices allow healthcare teams to provide advanced care in bustling urban centers as well as remote or rural areas where frequent in-person visits are impossible.
However, these devices often run outdated software due to the difficulty of patch management and the time-intensive nature of updates, which end up getting bumped from the schedules of busy metropolitan teams. In addition, healthcare organizations and patients alike often sacrifice security hygiene for convenience, increasing the likelihood of stolen credentials and compromised devices. Plus, since these devices often operate in patient homes and other locations outside the organization’s network, security teams may not even know if an IoT device is stolen or compromised until it’s too late.
Many cybercriminals target IoT medical devices to harvest sensitive health data, but in the process could cause a pacemaker to crash and severely injure the patient. To address the growing threat
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