After the Office of Personnel Management breach, medical data was labeled as the “holy grail” for cybercriminals intent on espionage. “Medical information can be worth 10 times as much as a credit card number,” reported Reuters. And now to steal such information, hospital networks are getting pwned by malware-infected medical devices.

TrapX, a deception-based cybersecurity firm, released a report about three real-world targeted hospital attacks which exploited an attack vector the researchers called MEDJACK for medical device hijack. “MEDJACK has brought the perfect storm to major healthcare institutions globally,” they warned. “Medical devices complimented by the MEDJACK attack vector may be the hospital’s ‘weakest link in the chain’.”

In three separate hospitals, TrapX found “extensive compromise of a variety of medical devices which included X-ray equipment, picture archive and communications systems (PACS) and blood gas analyzers (BGA).” But “there are many other devices that present targets for MEDJACK. This includes diagnostic equipment (PET scanners, CT scanners, MRI machines, etc.), therapeutic equipment (infusion pumps, medical lasers and LASIK surgical machines), and life support equipment (heart – lung machines, medical ventilators, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machines and dialysis machines) and much more.”

Read the Full Article: Source – Computer World
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2932371/cybercrime-hacking/medjack-hackers-hijacking-medical-devices-to-create-backdoors-in-hospital-networks.html

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