Cybersecurity Spending on Connected Medical Devices Set to Triple by 2021
October 18, 2016 | ABI ResearchEstimated reading time: 1 minute
The medical IoT is set to transform healthcare through smart medical devices. However, their success is in jeopardy if cybersecurity concerns are not addressed immediately. ABI Research believes that the millions of connected medical devices introduce dangerous new threat vectors into the healthcare IT infrastructure, and will seriously undermine patient safety and effective care delivery if left unchecked.
"We estimate spending by healthcare providers and OEMs on healthcare cybersecurity to reach $5.5 billion by 2016," says Michela Menting, Research Director at ABI Research. "However, only $390 million of that will be dedicated to securing medical devices. Healthcare stakeholders have to understand that there is a new hostile environment that will emerge around networked medical devices and that threat actors have multiple levels of skills and diverging motivations for attacking the medical IoT."
The money spent on securing medical devices will primarily be due to OEMs embedding security in the hardware, reviewing, analyzing, pen testing, developing patches, and performing OTA updates, among other functions. The rest of the expenditure will focus on data protection. But medical devices suffer from numerous vulnerabilities, and many often compound several critical vulnerabilities: code errors in software, use of hardcoded passwords, disabling of firewalls, lack of authentication mechanisms, unencrypted communications, among many other issues.
Protecting devices requires addressing technical issues, healthcare delivery, and business challenges. To do this, collaboration across the various stakeholder silos is necessary. The industry, however, is at the beginning stages of the discussion. Globally, the efforts are poor, and the U.S. is the only country currently putting significant energies into the matter.
However, awareness is growing, which will push spending on devices to triple globally by 2021, resulting primarily from dynamic U.S. public and private efforts in the space. A few companies are already fully embracing medical device cybersecurity, including Battelle, Coalfire, Dräger, Extreme Networks, Sensato, Synopsys, UL, and WhiteScope.
"Investment in medical device cybersecurity is critical in order to deliver the full promise of next-generation healthcare technology," concludes Menting. "OEMs and healthcare providers taking part in the discussion today will be the pioneers forming the foundation of future cybersecurity for medical devices."
Suggested Items
Absolute EMS Completes ISO 13485:2016 Recertification, Strengthening Commitment to Medical Device Quality Systems
03/25/2024 | Absolute EMS, Inc.Absolute EMS, Inc., an award-winning EMS provider of turnkey contract manufacturing services, proudly announces the successful completion of its ISO 13485:2016 audit, reaffirming its commitment to excellence in medical device manufacturing.
IMI Signs Memorandum with RRR Manufacturing PTY Ltd.
03/12/2024 | IMIIntegrated Micro-Electronics, Inc. (IMI), A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was recently signed between Integrated Micro Electronics Inc. and RRR Manufacturing PTY Ltd for the manufacture of portable automated external defibrillator solutions branded as CellAED. IMI will manufacture the full box build for the medical device that will be distributed both locally and abroad.
NEOTech Implements Advanced Technology for Enhanced Barcode Tracking in High-Tech Medical Device Production
03/08/2024 | NEOTechNEOTech, a leading provider of electronic manufacturing services (EMS), design engineering, and supply chain solutions in the high-tech industrial, medical device, and aerospace/defense markets, is thrilled to announce the implementation of improved technology to further enhance barcode tracking in the production of high-tech medical devices.
Cicor Acquires Evolution Medtec Srl, Strengthens Engineering Capabilities in Medtech Sector
02/28/2024 | Cicor Technologies Ltd.The Cicor Group has acquired 100% of the shares of the Romanian engineering company Evolution Medtec Srl and is further expanding its engineering capabilities in the medical technology sector.
Happy’s Tech Talk #25: Lab-on-PCBs for Medical Diagnosis
02/21/2024 | Happy Holden -- Column: Happy’s Tech TalkCOVID-19 created a rush for simple and quick medical diagnostic tests for the public. Biomedical MEMS (bioMEMS) have emerged as a subset of MEMS devices for applications in biomedical research and medical microdevices, with an emphasis on mechanical parts and microfabrication technologies. Applications include disease detection, chemical monitoring, and drug delivery. There has been rapid market growth for bioMEMS technologies, and many bioMEMS devices are already commercially available. There is great potential for large-scale commercialization of microfluidic-based LoC and LoPCB technologies.