Cybersecurity a growing problem in medical field by Emily Baucum

SAN ANTONIO - To tackle a growing problem, the health care industry is now investing billions of dollars each year on cybersecurity.

The Trouble Shooters learned the FBI is working every day with local hospitals and doctors to protect your confidential patient information and keep hackers out of your medical records.

"It's money, right. Data is money now," explains special agent Raymond Martinez from the FBI's cyber squad. "More and more hospitals or health care providers are bringing systems online to make it more convenient to access the data, rather than looking for a paper chart."

And many medical devices now use wireless communication, opening up huge security risks detailed in a recent report by the safety certification company Underwriters Laboratories.

The report states that in 2016, more than 100,000 people with insulin pumps were notified of a vulnerability that could have allowed a third-party to change their dosages.

And in 2017, the FDA recalled about 465,000 pacemakers because a hacker could have changed the programming without anyone knowing it.

"It's a very big deal," Martinez says.

The Trouble Shooters asked the FBI how hackers could even access medical devices implanted in your body.

"Could be the dark web," Martinez says. "Or it could just be somebody on the internet that is just looking for a vulnerable operating system, a vulnerable device."

He says to protect yourself, you need to ask questions. Start by making sure your doctor has a cybersecurity plan. Next, make sure your data's being encrypted as soon as you hit submit on that online form. Also, make sure the doctor's billing system is encrypted.

"A lot of victims think that they didn't realize that they'd be a target," Martinez says. "And when you point out that data is money, they quickly start changing their realization that everybody is a target now."

A silver lining: the Underwriters Laboratories study states there have been no reports of a hacked medical device leading to a patient's injury or death.

Source: https://news4sanantonio.com/news/trouble-shooters/cybersecurity-a-growing-problem-in-medical-field