Hospitals are filled with machines connected to the internet. With a combination of both wired and wireless connectivity, knowing and managing which devices are connected has become more complicated and, consequently, the institutions’ attack surface has expanded.

When did these devices get smart?

A brief timeline shows the FDA didn’t start regulating the connectivity of devices until 2005, but medical devices started to leverage software back in the ‘80s. Clinical capabilities have benefited greatly from this digitalization, bringing features, data collection and analytic computing to clinical care.