Siemens: Medical devices apparently have sensitive security vulnerabilities

As has now become public, a TCP/IP stack from Siemens has serious security flaws. A total of 13 leaks are said to allow access via remote code and enable DoS attacks. Above all, the fact that many medical devices are affected makes experts fear the worst.

The nightmare for every hospital

Forescout, an association of cybersecurity experts, in collaboration with Medigate, has identified a major security leak in medical devices. Specifically, the accessible gaps are said to be “Nucleus:13.” These are specific bugs that affect devices that are not only found in the segment of lighting systems and control systems of ventilation. Much more serious is the fact that medical devices also suffer from these bugs. These are by no means just isolated cases. In the worst case scenario, several million medical devices could suffer from the security gap. It’s hard to imagine what kind of dire consequences attackers could bring about here. The TCP/IP stacks from Nucleus should make it anything but difficult for cyber criminals to penetrate the devices. Even at a distance, malicious code can be injected into the device. In the course of this, DoS attacks or the theft of sensitive patient data are possible.

Siemens provides security update

Whether a cyberattack has occurred so far is still unclear. However, the risk of an attack is definitely very high. After all, the system is widespread in so many devices that it would almost border on a miracle if no resourceful hacker had come up with the idea of an attack yet. But not only the attack itself should be easy. The identification of the corresponding devices should not be a problem for experts either. It is also particularly frightening that the search engine Shodan can be used to search specifically for corresponding models. If one can be found with an active Internet connection, it should be possible to attack it directly. To keep the risk of cyberattacks as low as possible, Siemens has responded with a patch. Owners of affected devices should install it immediately for self-protection and to protect patient data.