Implantable neural devices and brain control interfaces introduce a new and significantly more complex class of cybersecurity and privacy risk compared with traditional medical devices, especially given the sensitivity of neural data, said Professor Kevin Fu, founder and director of the Archimedes Center for Healthcare and Medical Device Cybersecurity at Northeastern University.
Neural and other implantable medical technologies are a focus of cybersecurity research taking place at the Archimedes Center, for which the center has received “substantial funding,” he said.
“It’s an area that’s, of course, very important to people, especially when involving your brain and thoughts and neural interfaces,” he said. “A big question is how to ensure that there’s reasonable privacy built into the engineering of these devices.”
“It’s quite challenging to do on limited battery power, and when a device is implanted, and some of these devices even have drug pumps, so they have small reservoirs of drugs, usually for treatment of certain kinds of neurological pain, like sciatica – as well as electrical therapies for things like Parkinson’s disease and tremors,” he said.
“There’s a lot of sensitive information on these devices, and we want to make sure that as these devices are advancing and beginning to use sensors to adapt the therapies automatically,” he said.
In this audio interview with Information Security Media Group (see audio link below photo), Fu also discussed:
- Top cybersecurity risks involving implantable neural devices and related technologies, including brain control interfaces that work with prosthetic devices;
- Regulatory and other considerations involving medical device cybersecurity, including artificial intelligence-enabled technologies;
- Critical cybersecurity-related advice for medical device manufacturers, including those seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration premarket approval;
- How changes at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this year appear to have affected FDA’s cybersecurity-related work with the medical technology industry;
- A new fellowship program at the Archimedes Center for PhDs and physicians involving two research areas – one focused on improving the cybersecurity posture of hospital environments and the other on vulnerability management platforms to protect critical networks.
Fu is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University and founder and director of its Archimedes Center for Health Care and Medical Device Cybersecurity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was the acting director of medical device cybersecurity at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health and program director for cybersecurity at the Digital Health Center of Excellence. Prior to that, Fu was an associate professor at the University of Michigan, where he also founded the university’s center for healthcare and device security. He is co-founder and chief scientist of healthcare cybersecurity vendor Virta Labs.