Tag: smartphone security

Medical care facilities have expressed apprehension over risks associated with smartphone cybersecurity.

Hospital mobile security is a concern with increasing priority in medical facilities. The use of mobile technology has made it possible to enjoy many meaningful advantages in hospitals. Nurses can communicate more quickly, care team members – including doctors – can communicate more effectively, care can be more effectively coordinated, and workflows are more efficient.

That said, this platform may be convenient and helpful, but it opens system to cybersecurity risks.

A survey of 100 hospital IT and informatics executives by Spyglass Consulting Group provided insight on this topic. The firm is located in Menlo Park, California and specializes in market research and consultancy. The participants provided a solid representation of the 2,500 hospitals across the United States with over 200 beds. The research looked into hospital mobile security with in-house technology. It examined the level of protection and concern in place. The protection was regarding patient data, the mobile devices themselves and the technology infrastructure of the hospitals.

The research revealed that hospital mobile security is a large concern despite the benefits of the tech.

Managing director and founder of Spyglass, Gregg Malkary, said “Smartphone technology has really taken on a serious role as to how it fits into clinical communication, but every time you integrate systems, there are points where the data is in the clear, and where it is vulnerable.”

The mobile security survey examined the way connected devices such as tablets and smartphones could place a hospital’s IT infrastructure and network at risk of cyberattack. Attacks included: malware, blastware and ransomware. It took into account both devices personally owned by medical practitioners and devices owned and managed by the hospitals themselves.

The survey showed the largest concerns and issues in hospital mobile security. Personally owned devices commonly contained inadequate password protection. Furthermore, they were not satisfactorily protected with security software. They typically relied on SMS messaging that was not secured in order to communicate with other clinic team members. Many of those communications included sharing patient health information. This exposed that information to access by unintended recipients.

Approximately 900 million gadgets have been exposed and the fix will be a tough one.

The latest Android mobile security problem to have been identified is a big one. This vulnerability isn’t specific to any particular make, model or version of firmware. This is because it doesn’t actually have to do with the operating system. Instead, it’s an issue based at Qualcomm, the hardware manufacturer component provider.

At the moment, there are about 900 million Android smartphones with the vulnerable Qualcomm components.

What makes this Android mobile security problem worse is that it will be quite the challenge to fix. This, according to the Check Point security research firm.. There are actually four issues that make up the vulnerability. Together, these four issues are called QuadRooter. They impact Qualcomm chipsets from a number of different manufacturers. Manufacturers include Google, LG, HTC, OnePlus and others. The Google devices include the various manufacturers that make the Nexus smartphones and tablets.

Unfortunately, this Android mobile security vulnerability is a very serious one.

Compromised devices are open to a spectrum of different types of vulnerabilities. Primarily, it could provide unauthorized root access. This means cyber criminals could obtain any information stored on the device. The vulnerability also lets criminals take control of a phone’s camera and microphone and can track the device’s GPS location. Essentially, it is providing someone not only with the keys to your house, but also all your passwords and a means to carry all your belongings away.

Vulnerabilities in mobile security are not rare. All operating systems have experienced them. That said, when iOS vulnerabilities occur, Apple can typically address the problem very quickly because they are in control of both the software and hardware of their devices. However, the same cannot be said about Android.

According to Check Point mobile research team member, Jeff Zacuto, “Android security updates are really hard.” “The Android ecosystem is so fragmented. There are a lot of different versions and variants of Android in the marketplace, because each individual device has its own particular nuances,” he said.

This problem with Android mobile security isn’t anything recent. In fact only 15 percent of devices on this operating system are operating on its newest version, which means the rest are not operating with the latest protection features.