Medical Device Security in Germany: An Interview with Asimily’s Arne Trittelvitz

Editor’s note: This article was initially published in Handelsblatt, July 2024. It has been translated to English from its original German and lightly edited for clarity. 

It is particularly difficult for IT security to identify, define and reduce the security risk for medical devices. Nowhere are IT (information technology) and OT (operating technology or control systems for devices) more closely interlinked than in hospitals. Many medical devices are connected to the internet and to each other. This enables interoperability within and outside of a hospital, fueling system-controlled data analysis and more efficient information exchange. 

These innovations in health technology provide numerous benefits to patient care, but with increased security risk. In contrast to the online world, where IT security is no stranger, security is often insufficiently integrated in OT, if at all. Cyber criminals can thus gain access to sensitive patient information (medical diagnoses or treatments) or, in the worst case, shut down patient care. This is precisely why cybersecurity is so demanding for healthcare facilities. This is also why Asimily, the market leader for cyber security in the healthcare sector, secures more than one million medical devices and over 5 million networked devices at over 2,500 locations worldwide.

Asimily experts have in-depth interdisciplinary expertise in healthcare, cybersecurity, networking and analytics from working with leading medical companies and healthcare organizations. This interview details the conversation with Arne Trittelvitz, Director Europe, Asimily.

Mr. Trittelvitz, what is the current state of cyber security in hospitals?

Networked medical devices, but also the “control” systems of facility technology – which are just as vital for patient treatment as air conditioning systems, electricity and water supply, etc. – can have huge security gaps and become a gateway for cyber attacks. The problem is that these devices are generally not accessible to the traditional IT department and are also very difficult for the specialist department to define, measure and check. This lack of oversight combined with the lack of early detection of anomalies creates a large attack surface that the hospital is virtually unable to control. 

What is the Asimily solution?

First, the Asimily platform provides transparency into all connected devices. We know how the customer’s devices work, where they are located and how they communicate. Based on the behavior and network traffic of each device, we can identify if, when and how malware begins to spread. In a ransomware attack, you usually have 24-72 hours before the encryption kicks in. Efficient monitoring is therefore required in order to detect attacks as early as possible and respond appropriately. Within the first step, we check which systems are actually in use. Using our sensor connected to the customer network, every networked medical device and building technology device is recorded and identified down to the last detail and with all communication relationships.

Is device inventory the prerequisite for risk reduction?

Absolutely. We have the opportunity – and this makes Asimily quite unique on the market – to consistently evaluate and address every weak point via our database, which records vulnerabilities back to the 1990s. Our customers receive a complete picture of the networked device environment, neatly broken down by criticality and recommendations to efficiently remove the most urgent risks. Network segmentation in particular is increasingly being demanded by the BSI (German Federal Office for Information Security). Our solutions reduce the time required for such segmentation by weeks or months; network threats can be eliminated up to ten times faster, and with fewer resources. In addition, the Asimily solution is easy to implement, as a cloud service or on-site at the hospital, depending on which data protection regulations you need or want to comply with. These are all possibilities that we did not have in this form in Germany four years ago.

Increasing Hospital Efficiency with Security Best Practices

By understanding the full inventory of connected devices in a hospital, the Asimily platform can also provide insights into the use of an organization’s connected devices, aiding in capacity utilization analysis or process optimization. In this sense, Asimily partners with hospitals to improve efficiency and secure connected devices all in one.