Category Archives: health cybersecurity

‘Orangeworm’ hacking campaign hits X-ray and MRI machines

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Malware from a newly disclosed hacking campaign has infected the networks of multinational health care companies, including some X-ray and MRI machines, cybersecurity firm Symantec warned Monday. The hacking group, dubbed Orangeworm, has hit a relatively small number of companies in more than 20 countries, Symantec said in an advisory. Nearly 40 percent of Orangeworm’s victims are in the health care industry, the advisory said. Manufacturers and IT companies that do business in health care have also been infected. Orangeworm’s custom malware has shown up on machines that control “high-tech imaging devices such as X-ray and MRI machines,” Symantec said. The Orangeworm revelation adds to a slew of cybersecurity challenges, including ransomware, facing the health care sector. An Indiana hospital in January paid roughly $50,000 in bitcoin to hackers that held its computer system hostage. Congress has taken notice of the sector’s vulnerabilities. House lawmakers on Friday issued a request for information asking industry […]

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Can a CT scan be hacked? New research pushes doctors to patch their imaging devices

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Health care providers and manufacturers of medical imaging devices (MIDs) need to be more vigilant when it comes to protecting their equipment, researchers from Ben-Gurion University say in a new research paper. The paper, published this month, details how researchers found that the devices are particularly vulnerable to threats that can ultimately result in harm to patients. “MIDs are increasingly connected to hospital networks, making them vulnerable to sophisticated cyber-attacks targeting the devices’ infrastructure and components, which can disrupt digital patient records, and potentially jeopardize patients’ health,” the paper’s abstract says. At particular risk are computed tomography (CT) machines because of their widespread use in acute care imaging, the researchers say. The researchers simulated cyberattacks on machines that conduct CT scans and their host computers and came away with several major risks. By gaining access to the configuration files on a CT machine’s host computer, hackers can change the way a […]

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