Avoiding Medical Device Security Mistakes

Many organizations that rely on network segmentation to help secure connected medical devices are making mistakes that put the devices, data and networks at risk, says Daniel dos Santos, research manager at Forescout Technologies.

“When we look closely at network segments, we see that they are not as secure as they should be,” he says, describing findings of a recent Forescout Research Labs analysis of healthcare delivery organizations’ device security practices.

“What we are finding is that devices with distinct purposes are in the same network segments when they should not be communicating with each other,” he says. “We see medical devices and personal devices like smartphones, tablets and smartwatches in the same network segments. We also see a lot of mixture of healthcare and IT devices - so all these devices communicate with each other.”