3 ms·

Someone the other day wrote an excellent comment explaining why you can't just replace Windows with Linux in some professional environments like hospitals: medi

• deno 9y ago
  You can unplug the ethernet cable, however. Or at least firewall it.
  • josteink 9y ago
    This is what we did 10 years ago when I worked in a hospital. We knew these devices were insecure by default. Some even shipped with a network enabled MS SQL Server with a blank sa-password. Quite literally a free root-kit. Scientists and doctors working on these machines were forced to use portable storage (floppies, ZIP-drives or CD-RWs). It was cumbersome, but no network was a strict policy, and it was there for a reason.
    • i336_ 9y ago
      That's refreshing to hear that whoever had the authority in that situation also had a brain. I wonder how tricky it would have been to set up a MAC- and plug-location-based VLAN to isolate those devices onto, with a very very carefully locked down machine sitting between the devices and the rest of the network. Deep packet inspecting firewall, copious logging, antivirus turned up to 11, the works. I ask because I'm curious how well a theoretical setup like the above would have worked out for the described scenario - I'm sure there are similar environments where it may be impossible to get having no network approved by management.
• tonyedgecombe 9y ago
  Do we even know medical devices were affected, the reporting has been so shallow I'm not sure whether they have or it was just administration.