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> To put it another way: the only reason there is a huge demand for COBOL programmers is because banks are too spendthrift to rewrite their software in more mod
by muraiki 9y ago
> To put it another way: the only reason there is a huge demand for COBOL programmers is because banks are too spendthrift to rewrite their software in more modern languages.
I heard that medical devices are approved (by whatever regulatory body) to run an _exact_ set of software. As such, even applying a security update invalidates the approval, because it could potentially introduce bugs that place a patient's life at risk.
- keithpeter 9y agoNot sure that those systems are connected to the Internet. The software affected in the NHS was mainly in GP surgeries and admin offices to do with scheduling of procedures. Not directly life-threatening in the sense of a machine going wrong but indirectly damaging in the sense of procedures and consultations having to be cancelled, records not being available &c. Looking decades into future I'm wondering: Web applications + fairly basic clients Chromebook style for the scheduling/records stuff.
- azernik 9y agoThe computers that store patient records (which were compromised) are not medical devices under any regulatory regime I know of. And in any case the compromises were in the UK, which may have different rules on this subject than the FDA.
- muraiki 9y agoYeah, my point was just that sometimes systems have out of date security for reasons besides penny pinching and laziness. :)