Cyber-Security: The Vulnerability Of Medical Institutions To Cyber-Attacks

McAfee researchers were able to modify the vital sign data in real time providing false information to medical personnel by switching the heartbeat records from 80 beats a second to zero within five seconds. You would have woken up to news that Medstar patient records database was subject to ransom ware cyber-attack and was asked to pay bitcoins. Unfortunately, the hospital did not have backup of medical records and in some cases, they had to turn away the patients. These incidents, unfortunately, are not stray incidents.

There are various technologies converging and a rapid increase in machine to machine communications.

It is predicted that by 2025, most hospitals will have the ability to network connect more than 90% of their devices.