Should the FDA Assess Medical Device Defenses Against Hackers? 138
gManZboy writes "The vulnerability of wireless medical devices to hacking has now attracted attention in Washington. Although there has not yet been a high-profile case of such an attack, a proposal has surfaced that the Food and Drug Administration or another federal agency assess the security of medical devices before they're sold. A Department of Veterans Affairs study showed that between January 2009 and spring 2011, there were 173 incidents of medical devices being infected with malware. The VA has taken the threat seriously enough to use virtual local area networks to isolate some 50,000 devices. Recently, researchers from Purdue and Princeton Universities announced that they had built a prototype firewall known as MedMon to protect wireless medical devices from outside interference."
Should They? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:They Should But Why Not Use Existing Solutions? (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally I don't trust the FDA with something like this
Why not? They're the UL of medical devices. They're the ones who approved my eye implant. They're the ones who approve pacemakers. They're the ones we cyborgs rely on for safe implants.
I don't even trust the best in the private world with something like this: Microsoft, Apple, Google, IBM
The difference between the FDA and IBM is that you have no vote whatever over who runs IBM or what they do. The head of the FDA is appointed to the President, who you do have a vote in electing. Our power company is owned and operated by the city, and we've historically had the lowest rates and best uptime in the state. But they had a boondoggle that's going to raise rates, so I don't see the Mayor getting reelected unless the Democrats run someone REALLY bad.
I have to imagine that our government's security agencies already have a generalized form of protection testing and certification within their own systems, why not reuse that process and actually get some use and protection for citizens out of said government money vacuums?
That's exactly right -- the security people would be transferred to the FDA.