FBI has issued a formal alert on unpatched medical devices and says that these are extremely vulnerable to cyber attacks because of outdated software. The law enforcement agency added that threat actors are banking on the devices that are not patched and are seeing them as earning nodes.
Often such outdated devices bring in digital troubles to medical facilities as they can affect patient data, pose a risk to information security and data integrity.
Such issues arise because of a flaw in device hardware and update and compatibility issues in software management. Hackers are often in search of such flaws to launch cyber attacks like spyware or espionage related tools.
Proofpoint research claims that the year 2020 witnessed a lot of ransomware attacks on testing facilities of Corona Vaccine. As the cyber crooks were found working on a plan that could work for them in either way. One to steal intelligence and sell the details on the dark web. Second is to steal the vaccine details and threaten the research lab for money.
Although the security firm did not mention any nation in its report, it mentioned the name of the UK based testing firm that was deeply impacted by an Asian state funded cyber attack that stole details related to COVIDSHIELD.
Therefore, manufacturing firms involved in the development of medical devices should come up with products that get software updates from time to time and in an orderly fashion.
