Computer Virus Could be Rampant in Medical Equipment

Computer experts from the UK found that there are more than 8,000 types of viruses ready to attack computers and medical equipment health. They revealed that viral infection may be so severe that patients may ultimately died of a computer system in a medical analysis can not be changed, because the virus attacked software section.

Computer experts at one of the leading hospitals in the United States revealed that the experts managed to remove a virus attack in a week on two machines computer center. This warning has been given as part of a panel discussion in Washington DC, as reported by Technology Review of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mark Olsen, chief security officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said the hospital has 664 medical devices that operate on older versions of the Windows operating system. This means that medical devices have drawbacks because it can be attacked by a virus on its Windows system.

Experts say it can be difficult to upgrade 
old software on medical devices due
to regulatory restrictions. (Picture from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/)

Professor Kevin Fu, a leading expert in medical technology from UK explained that when the machine is infected with the virus do not always have updated equipment because of fears the threat. However, if left unchecked, it means breaking the rules imposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Where is the FDA approved the use of technology for security testing, the software against cyber threats needs to be improved. Imagine if we had a medical monitors that run with Windows systems that have been infected by a computer virus, it will slow down operations.

"Conventional malware rampant in hospitals because of medical equipment using un-patched operating system. There is little way to the hospital when the producers refused to allow the (operating system) update or security patch," said Prof. Fu. There are also concerns, medical devices could even end up being part of a botnet (a huge network of hijacked computers that are often used to send spam email).

Medical devices can be affected by the slow performance when infected, Prof. Fu told the BBC. "Imagine if you had a heart monitor device that runs Windows system and infected by a virus, the computer slows oprasional. Slowing computer course can lead to death. Sensor readings, and even analysis can be chaotic."

He said that there was no evidence of malware attacks on medical machines as a result of being targeted by hackers. Instead, he said it was more likely due to "collateral damage" of conventional malware designed to infect normal PC. "What we found is that the medical computer software has brought tremendous benefits for treatment. However, we forget that there are other threats that attack the risk of software," he said. *** [BBC | DEDI RISKOMAR | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 22112012]

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