FDA alerts providers to cyber vulnerabilities in certain GE medical devices

The Food and Drug Administration today alerted health care providers to cybersecurity vulnerabilities in certain GE Healthcare clinical information central stations and telemetry servers that may allow an attacker to remotely take control of these medical devices and silence, generate and interfere with alarms for connected patient monitors. The devices are used mostly in health care facilities to display a patient’s physiologic information (such as temperature, heartbeat and blood pressure) and monitor patient status from a central location, such as a nurse’s workstation. FDA currently is not aware of any related adverse events. GE Healthcare plans to issue a software patch to address the vulnerabilities and notify affected customers when the patches are ready. For more information, see the FDA notice.