Welcome to Digital Beachhead Quarterly’s third edition.  In this issue we are covering the topic of cybersecurity in the Medical Technology field.   I attended a conference recently that was focused on the MedTech world and during one keynote address I heard this statement:

“We know that cybersecurity is a relatively new concept”

Sitting in the audience I noticed the head nods of agreement with the speaker and was shocked.  Does the MedTech community feel cybersecurity is “new”?   Well, I was determined to find out and started asking that very question to the attendees.   What I discovered as I walked the conference floor and spoke with vendor after vendor was that cybersecurity wasn’t “new” but only recently becoming more “required” and therefor a great focus of MedTech creators and manufacturers.

Government regulation was the factor driving cybersecurity requirements and most of the people I spoke to admitted they were behind the curve.   As with most new technology the driving force was the development of the product with demonstratable proof it provided great new benefits to patients, doctors and humankind.   Cybersecurity was left to the Information Technology departments of hospitals and medical clinics not built into the device itself.

Thankfully new government regulations will require some sort of testing and/or other cybersecurity controls be put into place.   We hope you enjoy this issue with our thoughts on cybersecurity in MedTech and of course the continued need for cybersecurity in all aspects of our lives.