Frontlines: Are You Secure?

Abstract

As most of my friends would tell you, I'm not the world's most tech-savvy guy. The clock on my VCR (remember those?) always seemed to be blinking, and for the longest time my home computer teetered on the verge of a complete breakdown. I won't tell you how long I had dial-up service.One evening, my home computer crashed, likely done in by virus or worm that I had neglected to protect against. A friend was able to resurrect my computer, clean it up, and install new firewalls and virus protection. I've since gotten a new laptop and am far more diligent about keeping it secure and bug-free.The crash was a valuable lesson learned but, in truth, it came at little cost to me. Sure, I was out of a home computer for a few days, but it was little more than a hassle.Can anyone say the same about the potential threats posed to healthcare in an increasingly “networked” world, that any disruption of service would be a mere hassle? I think not.There's a whole new world of healthcare because of the incredible advances in technology. Medical devices are doing things today—in some cases virtually talking to one another—that might have seemed pure fantasy only 10 years ago. But with that great potential come new risks to patient safety.The federal Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board recently put it this way: “With increasing connectivity comes greater functionality and manageability, but also increased risks of both unintentional interference and malicious tampering via these communication channels.”Of more concern, says the board, is that there is a “diffusion of responsibility” when it comes to the cybersecurity of medical devices, making it harder to tackle the issue.Our cover story examines the functional risks to medical devices and the vulnerability of patient information. The article provides some tips on what healthcare technology management professionals can do to help their facilities move forward in protecting their devices—and their patients.Do you have tips or other ideas to share? Please write. Your colleagues want to know.