"Visibility Into Medical Device Inventories 'Paramount' to Securing Healthcare"

As healthcare continues to expand its digitization and interoperability efforts, gaining visibility into device inventories and connections, as well as the risks posed to patient safety, is critical to protecting healthcare, according to Elisa Costante, vice president of research for Forescout. Healthcare security leaders can create a tailored strategy for their environment and take action to reduce risk by knowing exactly which devices are on their networks. A new report from Forescout's Vedere Labs examines the increasing proliferation of devices across all industries, including a look at medical device security in healthcare. These devices, in particular, pose significant risks if attacked by malicious actors due to the potential impact on healthcare delivery and patient safety. Although the industry's ranking of the riskiest devices did not change significantly, it did confirm that nearly every industry is facing a growing attack surface due to the rapid expansion of Information Technology (IT), Internet of Things (IoT), and Operational Technology (OT) devices. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices are a novel addition to healthcare. Vedere Labs researchers examined millions of devices from Forescout's Device Cloud between January 1 and April 30, which contained data from nearly 19 million devices. The report for the healthcare sector examines the ease with which medical devices can be exploited because they are often used with default configuration, default open ports, and default credentials. This article continues to discuss the growing attack surface facing the healthcare sector and the importance of increasing visibility into medical device inventories to bolster security. 

SC Magazine reports "Visibility Into Medical Device Inventories 'Paramount' to Securing Healthcare"