The University of Guelph has an expert who can discuss why medical devices are so vulnerable to hackers.

Prof. Ali Dehghantanha is the director of the Cyber Science lab with U of G’s School of Computer Science and will lead a new graduate degree in cybersecurity and threat intelligence starting in the fall.

Dehghantanha spoke to Global News about a U.S. FDA warning that alerts patients and health-care providers that Medtronic MiniMed insulin pumps are vulnerable to cybersecurity hacks. The warning noted that vulnerabilities in the devices could allow someone other than the patient to access the pump and change its settings.

Dehghantanha noted that such vulnerabilities are “unfortunately, quite common” in the medical sector. He said there are no cybersecurity standards for such devices and many manufacturers use only basic security on their products.

Health Canada recently published new Pre-market Requirements for Medical Device Cybersecurity, but Dehghantanha is not convinced that will be enough.

Dehghantanha’s research is directed toward building AI agents for active threat hunting in Internet of Things (IoT) products, such as Internet-connected medical devices. He is also interested in research in cybercrime, cyber forensics, and anti (online) money laundering.

Contact:

Prof. Ali Dehghantanha
adehghan@uoguelph.ca