Henry Ford Health Reduces IoMT Attack Surface & Secures 200k+ Connected Medical & IoT Devices

“Asimily allows us to take preventative action, react quickly to potential incidents, and reduce our institutional cybersecurity risk. It would take a minimum of six full-time employees to partially replace what Asimily helps us accomplish.”

Ali Youssef, Director of Medical Device & IoT Security, Henry Ford Health

5

2,364

200k+

33k+

Hospitals

Beds

Connected

Employees

& Physicians

Challenge

Henry Ford Health observed an increase in hospital cybersecurity attacks across the U.S. and began an internal audit to assess and understand their overall current connected device inventory state, known vulnerabilities, and associated organizational risk. 

During the internal audit, they observed many new medical devices sold into their hospitals were still operating with 20-year-old technology creating interoperability challenges. Medical and IoT devices are often designed with security as an afterthought, do not support current protocols and standards, and have digital certificate issues.

Medical devices cannot be actively scanned with traditional IT security tools because doing so can derail the functionality of the device when in use and cause the patient harm.

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Project Goals

Develop a holistic ongoing connected device security program aligned with the NIST cybersecurity framework

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Henry Ford Health identified the following challenges:

Devices

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Clinical Engineering was manually managing medical device security with a reactive process (e.g., responding to FDA recalls, manufacturer notifications, and Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) on a specific device).

Lacked visibility into their connected medical and IoT device inventory and associated vulnerabilities.

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Missing a risk stratification and remediation strategy.

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No security governance program dedicated to IoMT Risk Management.

Accurately detect, classify, and reconcile connected medical and IoT devices

Manage vulnerabilities with prioritized remediation efforts focused on the highest-risk devices

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Detect and capture anomalies and threats for a 24/7 Incident Response program integrated with their Security Operations Center (SOC)

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The ability for Procurement to evaluate security prior to purchase during an RFP process

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Integrate with existing Network Access Control (NAC) to enable network policy enforcement, segmentation, and Air Defense RF capabilities

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Integrate with Henry Ford Health’s existing technology tools

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Maintain a predictable and transparent licensing and model

“When selecting an IoMT partner, make sure you have the right level of integration as each vendor offers different connections and automation. Also, critically important is to pay attention to cost models and look for predictable pricing.”

Ali Youssef, Director of Medical Device & IoT Security, Henry Ford Health

Solution & Milestones

Henry Ford Health deployed Asimily at nine locations with twelve Edge processors. Key milestones included:

Automatic discovery and classification of connected medical and IoT devices

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Full visibility into connected devices and corresponding middleware and applications

Clinically-validated recommendations streamlined remediation activities and security operations

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Automated threat detection of anomalous and suspicious device communications

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Tailored security policies to protect vulnerable devices from any unwanted and or suspicious behaviors

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Successfully integrated with existing SSO, SIEM, NAC, CMDB, and Vulnerability Management platform for a single pane of glass view of threats across their Organization

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The deployment of pre-procurement risk assessments using Asimily MDS2 analysis

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Integration with existing CMMS for asset reconciliation and automated work orders

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Financial flexibility for future capital and operational spending through accurate device utilization analytics

Henry Ford Health created a new team to address these specific challenges and execute a strategic plan. Their vision was to create an innovative, lean team building off their existing information privacy and cybersecurity team’s workflows, established NIST framework, and security processes to quickly identify vulnerabilities associated with devices and mitigate them quickly to reduce organizational risk.

Henry Ford Health’s Innovation Institute began researching medical device security vendors and leveraged Gartner, cybersecurity consultants, and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) to identify and understand the market and competitive landscape. 

Henry Ford Health developed an RFP and twelve IoMT solution vendors proposed solutions. A multidisciplinary team including IT, Security, and Clinical Engineering evaluated and scored the proposals. Asimily was selected for its ability to:

In the near future, Henry Ford Health plans to mature its security program through: