Concentrating on cybersecurity for imaging equipment, Israel’s health ministry has found 14 of 17 representative medical centers in the country have allowed imaging OEMs to remotely access MRI and CT machines.
In some cases center staff kept no watch over the outside-looking-in connections.
Meanwhile 13 of the 17 centers, which represented a total of 25 medical institutions, lacked username and password requirements for people using ultrasound equipment.
The findings emerged during an 11-month audit conducted in January 2021. The Jerusalem Post published key results in an article posted May 10.
The audit “focused on the security of medical imaging devices in particular, citing the serious and far-reaching consequences that this form of hacking can achieve,” the newspaper relays, quoting Israel’s comptroller, whose office wrote a report on the audit.
Moreover, the comptroller commented, the theft of medical imaging can lead to “invasion of a patient’s privacy, disclosure of their medical information, an incorrect medical diagnosis, financial extortion of the medical institution, or of the patients, threats, embezzlement and insurance fraud.”
On the bright side, all but five of the 17 medical centers took data security into account when selecting new imaging equipment, going so far as to hold the purchase until it could be OK’d by a data security officer.
Alas, more than one of those five “ignored completely” a rule mandating such oversight.
More from the comptroller’s report:
Issues have arisen in medical institutions, including large medical institutions. The shortcomings relate to the management aspects of the information security field […] and the operational aspect of protecting the devices, for example, the lack of critical security measures that the medical institutions should have implemented in the network for the purpose of protecting imaging devices.”
U.S. hospitals dealing with similar challenges may see grounds for solidarity in the report, as Israel’s healthcare system has been widely recognized as one of the most innovative in the world.
To read the May 10 Jerusalem Post article, click here.
More coverage of imaging cybersecurity:
Prominent radiology practice reveals recent cybersecurity breach that targeted patient records
Radiology practice assembles skilled team to strengthen cybersecurity after data breach
Cybersecurity experts warn of severe vulnerabilities in GE Healthcare imaging systems
Group asks radiologists to help address cybersecurity concerns
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.