TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Medigate today announced the launch of its dedicated medical device security platform for healthcare providers, the industry’s first and only solution to secure medical devices that are connected to electronic medical records, enterprise networks and servers, and the internet. The cloud-based security platform empowers healthcare IT and security teams to protect enterprises, securing data and safeguarding patient safety and privacy from malware, ransomware and other advanced cyberattacks targeting networked medical devices.
Medigate provides three capabilities essential for effective IT security: visibility into all network connected devices, detection of potential threats and automated prevention of attacks. These capabilities are specifically designed for the healthcare industry, differentiating Medigate from other solutions.
Medigate will showcase the platform at the HIMSS Conference & Exhibition March 5-9, 2018 in Las Vegas at booth 8600-52.
“We’ve seen a rise in cyberattacks targeting the healthcare sector in recent years due to vulnerabilities within medical device networks. This creates a critical exposure within the patient-provider information flow, and can even affect the quality of patient care,” said Jonathan Langer, co-founder and CEO of Medigate. “We’ve built a security platform to tightly protect this patient-provider data so that both parties can rely on the accuracy of critical treatment plans and confidentiality of their personal and private information.”
In recent years cyberattacks have become increasingly sophisticated, with breaches costing the United States healthcare system $6 billion worth of damage in 2015 according to Bloomberg1.
Cybercriminals use backdoors and botnets to exploit devices and enter networks. For example, MEDJACK, first discovered in 2015, is an advanced zero-day attack, which hackers used to specifically target the health care industry, stealing valuable patient data. MEDJACK showed just how vulnerable medical devices like x-ray machines and MRI scanners are to attacks. Using malware to exploit older versions of Windows, hackers went undetected by endpoint security software. While MEDJACK specifically targeted healthcare, medical devices also use COTS (commercial off the shelf) operating systems, which are rarely patched, and so can also be hit by random cross-sector cyberattacks that aren’t targeting healthcare specifically.
Not surprisingly, the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks has led to a greater demand for effective network security among providers. In fact, a 2017 HIMSS cybersecurity survey reported that CIOs named network security as the leading IT priority for improvement, ranking ahead of other IT issues like patient safety and improved work processes.
“In addition to triggering a host of network disturbances, data breaches pose a serious risk to patient safety, as attacks can lead to clinical errors, such as incorrect dosing and misdiagnoses of diseases,” said Langer. “Medigate’s security platform prevents intrusions such as MEDJACK and instills confidence in the privacy and safety of medical relationships.”
About the Medigate Platform
Medical devices present a unique challenge for IT security, as seamless patching is not possible due to the technical difficulty and high costs of staying current. These challenges are exacerbated by complex regulations, which have been implemented with patient safety in mind due to the mission critical nature of these devices. An unintended consequence of these regulations, however, is that device software cannot be readily updated as new threats to their embedded systems are identified, making medical equipment even more vulnerable to a data breach.
Medigate is the first and only platform dedicated to solving this problem with unique capabilities designed specifically for the healthcare industry:
- Automated medical device discovery and identification explores and maps all network-connected medical devices and fingerprints each make and model; this provides complete visibility and the capability to distinguish between legitimate and unauthorized devices
- Analysis of unique medical device communication protocols combines network monitoring through the security platform, advanced deep packet inspection (DPI) and an understanding of industry-specific protocols like Dicom and HL7 to detect anomalies that are likely to represent malware and intrusion attempts, with a low level of false positives
- Automated prevention of attacks preemptively blocks malicious malware through automated micro-segmentation capabilities enforced by the platform through the real-time blocking of data
With Medigate, medical providers can now create an impenetrable line of defense between endpoints, ensuring secure and connected care with decreased risk of breach in the reality of today’s widespread pandemic cybersecurity threat.
Medigate is soliciting qualified customers now and is immediately available for pre-rollout evaluations. Apply for early access and learn more about Medigate’s dedicated medical device security platform online.
About Medigate
Medigate provides the industry’s first and leading dedicated medical device security platform, enabling providers to deliver secure, connected care. Only Medigate fuses the knowledge and understanding of medical workflow and device identity and protocols with the reality of today’s cybersecurity threats. With Medigate, you can more safely operate all medical devices on your network, enabling you to deploy existing and new devices to patients while ensuring their privacy and safety.
Media Contact:
Montner Tech PR
Deb Montner, 203-226-9290
dmontner@montner.com
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1 Pettypiece, S. (2015) Rising Cyber Attacks Costing Health System $6 Billion Annually, Bloomberg Technology
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