A type of anaesthetic machine that has been used in NHS hospitals can be hacked and controlled from afar if left accessible on a hospital computer network, a cyber-security company says.<\/p>\n
A successful attacker would be able to change th"},"modified":"2019-07-11T18:39:15","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T18:39:15","slug":"anaesthetic-devices-vulnerable-to-hackers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/11\/anaesthetic-devices-vulnerable-to-hackers\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaesthetic devices ‘vulnerable to hackers’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A type of anaesthetic machine that has been used in NHS hospitals can be hacked and controlled from afar if left accessible on a hospital computer network, a cyber-security company says.<\/p>\n
A successful attacker would be able to change the amount of anaesthetic delivered to a patient, CyberMDX said.<\/p>\n
Alarms designed to alert anaesthetists to any danger could also be silenced.<\/p>\n
GE Healthcare, which makes the machines, said there was no \u201cdirect patient risk\u201d.<\/p>\n
But CyberMDX\u2019s research suggested the Aespire and Aestiva 7100 and 7900 devices could be targeted by hackers if left accessible on hospital computer networks.<\/p>\n
And analysis by BBC News found multiple references online to the Aespire and Aestiva machines being used in NHS Hospitals.<\/p>\n
Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust confirmed to the BBC that \u201ca small number\u201d of the devices were currently in use at its facilities, but were being phased out.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of the anaesthetic machines are connected to the internet or the NUH network so there is very little risk around these machines within NUH,\u201d a spokesman told the BBC.<\/p>\n
NHS Digital said it could not confirm the extent to which the machines were still in use across the NHS.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are currently assessing the volume of these particular anaesthetic machines in use across England and we will be sharing any subsequent advice with trusts in the coming days,\u201d a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
Elad Luz, head of research at CyberMDX, said he was aware of hospitals in the US and Asia that also used the devices.<\/p>\n
GE Healthcare said it was satisfied a cyber-attack would \u201cnot introduce clinical hazard or patient risk\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said this was because anaesthetic devices were \u201cattended\u201d by anaesthetists and would be monitored for any errors.<\/p>\n
The company told BBC News it did not plan to release any security updates for the anaesthetic machines but hospitals should use secure network protocols to protect them from would-be hackers.<\/p>\n
Cyber-security expert Ken Munro agreed that medical devices should be isolated within computer networks but added: \u201cIt\u2019s not, frankly, the case in many hospital networks.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he said GE Healthcare should bear some responsibility for the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cGE absolutely have a part to play in this and they absolutely should be building devices with strong security,\u201d Mr Munro added.<\/p>\n
A malicious hacker may try to gain access to a hospital\u2019s network, locate one of the machines and then adjust its settings, said Prof Harold Thimbleby, an expert in medical device cyber-security, at Swansea University.<\/p>\n
And he gave the example of WannaCry, a ransomware outbreak that spread through NHS computer networks in 2017, to illustrate how an attack could unfold.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs with WannaCry, a phishing attack can gain access and then an attacker can do what they like,\u201d he told BBC News.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the worldwide profile of WannaCry, it is amazing vulnerabilities like this are still around.\u201d<\/p>\n
The likelihood of harm being caused to a patient through any hacking of the devices was \u201cincredibly small\u201d said Dr Helgi Johannsson, consultant anaesthetist and Royal College of Anaesthetists Council Member.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients should be reassured that their anaesthetist will be monitoring them constantly, and will have received many years of training to rectify immediately the situation of a device failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the UK\u2019s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said reports of the cyber-security vulnerability were now part of an \u201congoing area of investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatient safety is our highest priority and where necessary we will take action to protect public health,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The US Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) has published an advisory notice about the vulnerability.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A type of anaesthetic machine that has been used in NHS hospitals can be hacked and controlled from afar if left accessible on a hospital computer network, a cyber-security company says. A successful attacker would be able to change the amount of anaesthetic delivered to a patient, CyberMDX said. Alarms designed to alert anaesthetists to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":654759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-654758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle"],"yoast_head":"\n
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