Report: Researchers create CT, MRI image-altering malware to expose vulnerabilities

A group of researchers have created a malware program designed to exploit vulnerabilities in computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging equipment to add realistic, malignant-seeming growths to scans in a bid to draw attention to vulnerabilities in medical equipment networks, according to a Washington Post report. Researchers Yisroel Mirsky, Yuval Elovici and two others at the University Cyber Security Research Center in Israel created the malware program for use in a blinded study involving real CT scans, according to the report. A total of 70 images were altered by the malware and were able to fool three skilled radiologists into misdiagnosing conditions “nearly every time,” according to the Washington Post. Radiologists examining the images with added cancerous nodules incorrectly diagnosed cancer 99% of the time, according to the report. For images with real cancerous nodules that were removed, radiologists judged the patients to be healthy 94% of the time. After being informed that the images were altered, the radiologists were given a second set of 20 scans, half of which were altered, according to the Washington Post. The radiologists still diagnosed fake nodules as cancerous 60% of the time, and did not detect the removed nodules 87% of the time. Researchers in the study also ran the test against a lung-cancer screening software tool and were able to trick the system into misdiagnosing the false tumors every time, according to the report. While the ...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Featured Imaging Software / IT Source Type: news