U.S. Government Prevents Hospital Computer Repair
More than 300 medical devices that were infected by the notorious Conficker worm were not fixed for more than three months, a leading member of a group formed to fight malware told the U.S. Congress.
Rodney Joffe, founder of the Conficker Working Group, told a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the group had identified more than 300 critical medical devices, manufactured by a single company, that were infected by the Conficker. He added that regulatory requirements mandated that the hospitals wait 90 days before the systems could be modified.
The computerized medical devices got infected through the Internet. The users of infected devices often suffer a slow computer. In this case they also needed a computer repair, but because of the intervention of government officials the medical staff was prevented from doing so.
Reportedly, the infected computers were used to let medical teams check high-intensity scans such as MRIs, which are often used in intensive care facilities.
“One of the great values of the open Internet is that it allows you to connect fairly cheaply and fairly easily to other computers,” Joffe said. “The Internet was never designed to do the things it’s doing today.”
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