GE Healthcare Tackles Cybersecurity With Skeye

Leading global medical technology and life sciences company, GE Healthcare has announced its new cybersecurity product called, Skeye. This comes off the back of the company experiencing its own security issues earlier this year.

In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration put out a safety alert concerning GE Healthcare Clinical Information Central Stations and Telemetry Servers. The FDA issued the warning, as the vulnerabilities in GE's devices posed risks to patients they're monitoring. This included hackers being able to change settings inside the device, as well as the ability to silence alarms and interfere with the patient monitoring capabilities.

The company's response is Skeye, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and process management tools to provide proactive monitoring of a hospital's resources and capabilities. It begins with a risk assessment and includes the real-time discovery of networked devices. The product scans medical devices connected to a network, and it can pinpoint weak spots or vulnerabilities that could allow intruders a digital entry point. Then identified problems are communicated to a remote security team for analysis and response.

"Our customers need visibility to what medical devices are connected to their networks and the right resources to mitigate potential threats. This new offering provides customers with threat visibility and a resolution roadmap to help defend and protect against vulnerabilities," said Matt Silva, Chief Information Security Officer, GE Healthcare. "Our security operations center can augment customers' in-house security teams by addressing cybersecurity events, as well as providing the latest information on malware and other malicious threats."

The company has partnered with TJ Regional Health, an independent, multisite healthcare organization with two hospitals and eight outlying clinics, located in southern Kentucky, to pilot Skeye.

"Defending T.J. Regional Health against malicious cyberattacks and protecting our patients, data, and medical facilities is a top priority," said T.J. Regional Health IT director Chad Friend. "We wanted to stay current with cybersecurity trends, assess the risk across our hospitals and clinics, and analyze our own preparedness. GE Healthcare's Skeye offering helps us do just that.

Healthcare remains one of the top targets for hackers and cybercriminals.