Computer Viruses Are “Rampant” on Medical Devices in Hospitals

As if you didn’t have enough to worry about when you’re hospitalized, now you have to deal with computer viruses on medical devices.

But this article brings up two very important questions. First, why is Windows being deployed as the base operating system for medical devices? Windows isn’t realtime nor is it particularly lightweight. You’re going to spend a lot of resources just to have it running doing nothing, adding cost to an already expensive machine. That cost is, of course, passed on to patients.

Second, why are medical devices being connected to the Internet? A secondary question is why the internal hospital networks are Internet connected as well. It is literally asking for trouble in devices where trouble could have serious impacts on health and safety. There’s no reason why a hospital can’t run a separate, non-Internet connected network for medical devices alongside a general use network for everyone else. Exposing your medical devices to the wild is simply irresponsible.

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