Two of Israel’s general hospitals, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Rambam Healthcare Campus are increasing their security measures to also include protecting their medical devices. These are Israel’s third and fifth largest hospitals respectively and have contacted the cyber security company Cynerio Israel Ltd to utilize their technology in their systems.
Cynerio’s system is currently being installed on relevant devices and their technology helps combine machine learning with medical workflow analysis to help monitor the connections on these devices. It also provides information regarding medical device network behavior, stop threats and detect anomalies.
According to the joint statement announcing the news, Sourasky and Rambam confirmed they already use cyber security for their networks however the devices used in the hospitals did not have a dedicated defense system until now.
In 2017, when WannaCry was at its peak, it carried out a worldwide ransomware attack on 16 hospitals and this led to almost 600 general practices being breached in the UK. The computers were locked and the files were held for ransom. This attack left the hospitals being unable to access digital medical records and affected the quality of care they could provide to their patients.
With the advancement in medical devices, MRIs, X-ray machine and insulin pumps have become increasingly smart along with wireless technology and sensors and connection to smartphones for better care capabilities. However due to this these medical devices can be subjected to security breached and become a target for manipulation.
They can even be used to infiltrate into the most protected hospital network as well. Eyal Kleiiner, who is the head of Rambams computer and communications security, said in an email sent to Calcalist that, “Most of today’s advanced medical devices are not properly protected by traditional cyber security technology.
The hospital, therefore, searched for a technology that could show a devices environment and possible threats, and assist in their protection.”
