New Medical Device Coordination Group Guidance On Cybersecurity For Medical Devices

Medical device cybersecurity is a growing concern in light of the increasing rate of IT security incidents and data breaches for many healthcare ecosystems. This is important too for medical device manufacturers. An attacker could cause pacemakers to deliver a deadly shock, a healthcare facility’s IT system could be compromised through access from a medical device or software medical device apps could be hacked and interfere with a patient’s medical treatment. The WannaCry hack which shut down hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide and demanded ransoms in May 2017, also affected the NHS in Great Britain. It cancelled 19,000 appointments, locked medical devices and cost the NHS GBP92 million.