ARTICLE SUMMARY:
As connectivity in medical devices may be outpacing manufacturers’ ability to keep them safe from interference by skilled cyber-attackers, a tech policy expert shares his suggestions for makers and regulators to ensure the highest degree of digital protection.
The human body’s built-in security, the immune system, can recognize threats, send alerts in the form of symptoms, and neutralize foreign agents like viruses and bacteria. The security of the electronic devices used in the course of healthcare should be expected to have a similar level of robustness, yet regulatory requirements in that area are murky at best. To get a handle on an increasingly digital, and thus increasingly vulnerable, healthcare industry, Daniel Bardenstein, co-founder and CEO of Manifest, has proposed that the FDA obligate medical device manufacturers (MDMs) to adhere to certain baseline standards, from password complexity and minimized exposure to software updates and validation.
