Red tape keeps Conficker on critical medical devices

You might have read an earlier report on how the persistent and widespread Conficker worm has found its way onto medical devices. Researcher Rodney Joffe told a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee of how it took himself and another researcher just three weeks to identify at least 300 critical medical devices from a single manufacturer that have been infected with the worm malware.

In an incredible and ironic twist, regulatory requirements mandate that hospitals impacted by the malware have to wait 90 days before the systems could be modified to remove the infections and vulnerabilities. Conficker found its way onto these medical devices because the machines were wired to Internet-accessible networks. Joffe noted, "They should have never, ever been connected to the Internet."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at ZDNet

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