Consulting firm McKinsey estimates that the market for Internet of Things (IoT) enabled medical devices could reach as much as $1.1 trillion by 2025. IoT refers to technology that allows devices to be connected to a computer network to gather data and support remote control.
The sheer magnitude of medical devices connected to, monitored and remotely controlled by a computer network therefore behooves a highly secure environment that is safe from miscreants, a security expert said in a recent report.
Because these devices are crucial to the wellbeing of the individuals using them, they need better security than those that are available now, industry observers say.
The hospital environment has many of security vulnerabilities, observed Vlad Gostomelsky, a network security professional and managing consultant with
Spirent Communications, a specialist in network, device and services testing.
Additionally, Gostomelsky said that hospitals often do not have the kind of budgets needed to secure the information in their safekeeping. He also noted that security is not the priority of vendors as they peddle their solutions and attempt to outdo each other in getting their products out into the market first.
“Device manufacturers who actually create the medical devices need to have comprehensive testing. They need to build more secure devices,” he stressed.
Since vendors are not going to do it out of their own initiative, Gostomelsky said hospitals need to put pressure on their suppliers to develop standards to ensure the security of their devices.
"If the industry doesn't create standards, the (Food and Drug Administration) will step in. If we don't do it ourselves, the government will set standards and we may not like the results," he noted.
