Security: The Next Imperative in Medical Systems

The FDA is increasing its focus on cybersecurity in medical devices and hospital systems. At the same time, technical trends like IoT connectivity, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence are increasing the attack surface of these devices and systems. The medical industry is joining other industries in developing or borrowing—mainly from the military—security techniques and technologies to improve and secure complex medical systems as well as medical IoT. The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has compiled guidance and best practices. One area of IIC focus is data communications that underpin IoT systems, like the battle-tested and security-hardened Data Distribution Service (DDS) open standard. Connectivity with DDS not only provides much improved resilience, scalability and data comms performance, it also provides a fine-grained, military-grade security model. The US military tested DDS on their cybersecurity test range and now militaries around the world use DDS Security in their critical systems. DDS and its security model is equally applicable to medical systems, whether the goal is to protect patient privacy or improve the quality and efficiency of care. Come hear more about how to clear the rising bar for cybersecurity by using a fine-grained interconnectivity standard like DDS. We will discuss its application to IoT systems in medical and other industries as well as the details of how the DDS security model works.