The Reality Behind Hospital and Medical Device Security

The Reality Behind Hospital and Medical Device Security

Hospital and Medical Device Security

We recently presented at the DeviceTalks conference in Boston Ma about the vulnerabilities that affect hospitals and medical devices (insulin pumps, pacemakers, etc.).  The goal of our presentation wasn’t to instill fear but sometimes fear is a reasonable byproduct of the truth.  The truth is that of all the networks that we test, hospital networks are by far the easiest to breach.  Even more frightening is that the medical devices contained within hospital networks are equally if not more vulnerable than the networks that they are connected to.   It seems that the healthcare industry has spent so much time focusing on safety that they’ve all but lost sight of security.

The culprit behind this insecurity is mostly convenience.  Hospitals are generally run by healthcare experts with a limited understanding of Information Technology and an even more limited understanding of IT Security. It would be unreasonable to expect healthcare experts to also be IT security experts given the vast differences between both fields. When healthcare experts hire IT experts and IT Security experts they do it to support the needs of the hospital.  Those needs are defined by the doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals tasked with running the hospital.  Anything that introduces new complexity or significant changes will be slow to adopt or perhaps not adopted at all.  Unfortunately, good security is the antithesis of convenience and so good security often falls by the wayside despite best efforts by IT and security personnel.

Unfortunately, in many respects the IT security industry is making the situation worse with false advertising.  If antivirus solutions worked as well as they are advertised, then malware would be a thing of the past.  If Intrusion  Prevention Solutions worked as well as advertised, then intrusions would be a thing of the past.  This misrepresentation of the capabilities provided by security solutions produces a false sense of security.  We aren’t suggesting that these solutions are useless, but we are encouraging organizations to carefully test the performance and effectiveness of these solutions rather than simply trusting the word of the vendor.

After we breach a network there exists a 30-minute window of susceptibility to ejection from the network. Most malicious hackers have a similar or larger window of susceptibility.  If a breach is responded to within that window, then we will likely lose access to the network and be back to square one (successful damage prevention by the client).   If we are not detected before that window expires, then the chance of successful ejection from the network is close to zero.  Astonishingly, the average length of time it takes for most organizations to identify a breach is 191 days.  Rather than focusing on breach prevention (which is an impossibility) organizations should be focusing on breach detection and effective incident response (which is entirely attainable).  An effective incident response will prevent damage.

Within about 40 minutes of breaching a hospital network our team takes inventory.  This process involves identifying systems that are network connected and placing them into one of two categories.  Those are the medical device category and the IT systems category.  Contained within the IT systems category are things like domain controllers, switches, routers, firewalls and desktops.  Contained within the medical device category are things like imaging systems, computers used to program pacemakers, insulin pumps etc.  On average the systems in the medical device category run antiquated software and are easier to take control of than the IT devices.  This is where security and safety intersect and become synonymous.

These medical device vulnerabilities afford attackers the ability to alter the operation of life-critical systems.  More candidly, computer attackers can kill patients that depend on medical devices.  The reality of medical device vulnerability is nothing new and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. This is clearly evidenced by the ever-increasing number of medical device recalls triggered by discovered cybersecurity vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities exist because the security of the software being deployed on medical devices is not sufficiently robust to safeguard the lives of the patients that rely on them.

More frightening is that attackers don’t need to breach hospital networks to attack medical devices.  They can attack medical devices such as implants from afar using a laptop and a wireless antenna.  This was first demonstrated in 2011 by security researcher Barnaby Jack.   He proved the ability to wirelessly attack an insulin pump from a distance of 90 meters causing it to repeatedly deliver its maximum dose of 25 units until its full reservoir of 300 units was depleted.  In simple terms Barnaby demonstrated how easily an attacker could kill someone with a keyboard and make it look like a malfunction.  He also did the same thing with a pacemaker causing it to deliver a lethal 840-volt shock to its user.  Similar attacks are still viable today and affect a wide variety of life supporting devices.

To solve this problem two things needs to happen.  The first is that medical device manufacturers need to begin taking responsibility for the security of their devices.  They need to recognize that security is in many cases a fundamental requirement of safety.  They also need to begin taking a proactive approach to security rather than reactive.  In our experience medical device manufacturers are unfriendly when interfacing with vulnerability researchers.  They might want to reconsider and even offer bug bounties as a step in the right direction.

Hospitals also need to make some significant changes too.  They need to begin to put security above convenience when it has the potential to impact patient safety.  This might mean installing good password managers and enforcing strong passwords with two factor authentications, increasing security budgets, or even paying for good security training programs.  Most hospitals are patient safety focused but fail to recognize that IT security and patient safety are now synonymous.

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Karen Huggins

Chief Financial, HR and Admin Officer
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Karen joined the Netragard team in 2017 and oversees Netragard’s financial, human resources as well as administration functions. She also provides project management support to the operations and overall strategy of Netragard.
 
Prior to joining Netragard, she worked at RBC Investor Services Bank in Luxembourg in the role of Financial Advisor to the Global CIO of Investor Services, as well as several years managing the Financial Risk team to develop and implement new processes in line with regulatory requirements around their supplier services/cost and to minimize the residual risk to the organization.
 
With over 20 years of experience in finance with global organizations, she brings new perspective that will help the organization become more efficient as a team. She received her Bachelor of Finance from The Florida State University in the US and her Master of Business Administration at ESSEC Business School in Paris, France.

Philippe Caturegli

Chief Hacking Officer
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Philippe has over 20 years of experience in information security. Prior to joining Netragard, Philippe was a Senior Manager within the Information & Technology Risk practice at Deloitte Luxembourg where he led a team in charge of Security & Privacy engagements.

Philippe has over 10 years of experience in the banking and financial sector that includes security assessment of large and complex infrastructures and penetration testing of data & voice networks, operating systems, middleware and web applications in Europe, US and Middle East.

Previously, Philippe held roles within the information system security department of a global pharmaceutical company in London. While working with a heterogeneous network of over 100,000 users across the world and strict regulatory requirements, Philippe gained hands-on experience with various security technologies (VPN, Network and Application Firewalls, IDS, IPS, Host Intrusion Prevention, etc.)

Philippe actively participates in the Information Security community. He has discovered and published several security vulnerabilities in leading products such as Cisco, Symantec and Hewlett-Packard.

He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), PCI Qualified Security Assessors (PCI-QSA), OSSTMM Professional Security Analyst (OPSA), OSSTMM Professional Security Tester (OPST), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC)and Associate Member of the Business Continuity Institute (AMBCI).

Adriel Desautels

Chief Technology Officer
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Adriel T. Desautels, has over 20 years of professional experience in information security. In 1998, Adriel founded Secure Network Operations, Inc. which was home to the SNOsoft Research Team. SNOsoft gained worldwide recognition for its vulnerability research work which played a pivotal role in helping to establish today’s best practices for responsible disclosure. While running SNOsoft, Adriel created the zeroday Exploit Acquisition Program (“EAP”), which was transferred to, and continued to operate under Netragard.
 
In 2006, Adriel founded Netragard on the premise of delivering high-quality Realistic Threat Penetration Testing services, known today as Red Teaming. Adriel continues to act as a primary architect behind Netragard’s services, created and manages Netragard’s 0-day Exploit Acquisition Program and continues to be an advocate for ethical 0-day research, use and sales.
 
Adriel is frequently interviewed as a subject matter expert by media outlets that include, Forbes, The Economist, Bloomberg, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, and The Register. Adriel is often an invited keynote or panelist at events such as Blackhat USA, InfoSec World, VICELAND Cyberwar, BSides, and NAW Billion Dollar CIO Roundtable.