Security for the IoT in the healthcare sector

Connecting IoT devices to the clinical network offers clear benefits for hospitals and clinics, but also exposes them to new cyber threats. From infusion pumps, patient monitors and MRI machines to clinical refrigerators, IoT devices are inherently vulnerable and comparatively easy to hack.

Unpatched, incorrectly configured software, unsecured communication protocols: The extensive and diverse device inventories from different providers, models and functionalities make it difficult to maintain an overview and keep them secure. The risk of an ever-growing number of shadow devices (devices connected to the network without anyone knowing about it) increases exponentially. And although IoT environments in healthcare have become increasingly complex, their IT security solutions have lagged far behind.

Medigate provides a detailed overview of your medical IoT devices

Medigate, a young company specialising in IoT in healthcare, provides a complete inventory of all networked devices, identifies anomalous processes, helps to enforce security policies and provides valuable insights for the management of medical technology – including the degree of utilisation of computer tomographs, for example, which in turn can serve as a basis for procurement decisions.

Technically, the Medigate platform works as follows: a sensor appliance examines the network traffic, generally via mirrored switch ports, filters the information relevant to the IoT from the data stream and forwards it to the Medigate cloud or optionally to an on-site analysis server for analysis.

Medigate presents the findings on a clear web console. This makes it possible to see at a glance how many devices have been detected in total and how many are currently online. A drill-down function provides detailed information on each individual device. The console also presents information on any vulnerabilities of the devices, as well as further information such as the exact device type, the installed software version, the operating time, the location, the activities and the utilisation of the respective device. Medigate not only provides information about the origin of medical data traffic, but also about its destination, and warns of anomalies. This makes it possible to immediately recognise, for example, if patient data is being stored on a memory that is not approved for this purpose.

In addition, Medigate works closely with IT security solutions and enables easy integration of firewalls from various manufacturers.