Medical device makers face push to protect their wares from hacks (Wall Street Journal, 13 February 2023)

Summary

Hospitals and other medical organisations are being hit by a rising number of cyberattacks; ransomware strikes on healthcare doubled annually between 2016 and 2021, according to a study published in December in the Journal of the American Medical Association. After a cyberattack, hospitals are forced to cancel procedures, reroute patients to other facilities and resort to pen-and-paper record-keeping. In this article, Wall Street Journal reporter James Rundle looks at how cyberattacks and a regulatory push are increasing the pressure on medical device manufacturers to improve the security of their products.