“Digital Immunity” to Cyber Viruses
Robbers used to hit banks because “that’s where the money is.” Now they target hospitals for the same reason, with the luxury of being safely afar in cyberspace, using ransomware that can shut down an entire IT network, and malicious viruses hacked into infusion pumps, MRI machines, and other critical technologies. In this piece Mike Ahmadi, with Synopsys Software Integrity Group (San Francisco, CA)—the world’s largest electronic design automation company—proposes that “digital pathogens” are the functional cause of cyber-crime, and it should be possible to design “digital immunity” into healthcare software. So far, he doesn’t know how that can be accomplished, but he obviously believes that applying sufficient brainpower to the task should be productive. Meanwhile, medicine’s “Internet of Things” is a happy hunting ground for criminals that keeps getting bigger. MORE
Image Credit: MedTecEurope.com