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Medical Equipment Crashes During Heart Procedure Because Of Antivirus Scan (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Softpedia: The device in question is Merge Hemo, a complex medical equipment used to supervise heart catheterization procedures, during which doctors insert a catheter inside blood veins and arteries in order to diagnose various types of heart diseases. According to one such report filed by Merge Healthcare in February, Merge Hemo suffered a mysterious crash right in the middle of a heart procedure when the screen went black and doctors had to reboot their computer. Merge investigated the issue and later reported to the FDA that the problem occurred because of the antivirus software running on the doctors' computer. The antivirus was configured to scan for viruses every hour, and the scan started right in the middle of the procedure. Merge says the antivirus froze access to crucial data acquired during the heart catheterization. Unable to access real-time data, the app crashed spectacularly.
Picking an OS that clear says not use it for real time possible life endangering task is a huge mistake!! QNX, RT_Linux, and more!!! Hello!!!
Many(most) Hospitals and medical centers are still stuck on Windows XP, there's no upgrading to Windows 10.
This is interesting; the configuration on a device like this should be highly controlled. I have no experience with medical devices, but I know that process control equipment generally has vendor approved configuration (and often they only certify one AV vendor so even if our corporate contract is with vendor A, we have to use vendor B for the process control stuff because that is what is certified by the control system vendor. They also have very specific settings you have to use. Failure to follow the settings could result in lack of process control at a critical time. It seems medical stuff must be under similar (if not even more restrictive) configuration control. Having AV do a "scan" every hour is very stupid since any competent AV is doing on-access scanning anyway. I would expect the vendor for the software has specified folders / files / etc. that must be exempted from the scan as well (vendors for process stuff such as Yokogawa, etc. specify that). Seems to be a configuration failure on the part of the facility.
For what? This was an antivirus scan and the report itself doesn't mention an OS. Furthermore, this crash brought down the whole system. If developers are writing their software to utilize drivers, they ought to make sure those drivers aren't so buggy that the mere stopping of data will tank the entire system...especially a system that should be as close to "bulletproof" as bulletproof can be in the technological sense of the word.
Which completes excuses the unhandled exception in the product that they clearly knew about, or they wouldn't have so explicitly worded the instructions. I see the manufacturer failed to learn the lessons from the Therac-25.
Any system that requires humans to follow instructions that they read once a long time ago, but must follow exactly on a rarely performed task is an accident waiting to happen.
"Merge investigated the issue and later reported to the FDA that the problem occurred because of the antivirus software running on the doctors' computer. "
I seriously doubt the computer was owned by the doctor. More than likely, it was procured, set up and managed by a team of IT specialist at the hospital/clinic who know little to nothing about the software that might be running on it. Likewise, if the company supplying the software isn't providing a dedicated, hardened box to run the software on, they share the blame as well. Or, I have seen dedicated boxes with all kinds of crap loaded on them by operators who had no clue what the consequences might be. The bottom line here is that maybe computers should be kept out of the operating room. Or maybe doctors shouldn't be allowed to use them.
There is no need to mention an OS - the only system that such problems with viruses is Windows, and the only OS that embeds a virus scan in the kernel IS windows. No other OS locks data like that.
"as close to "bulletproof" as bulletproof can be"
Certainly leaves out using Windows.
The only sane way to develop such a thing would be for the vendor to be responsible for the entire software stack from the firmware on up. This sort of stuff should never be built on Windows in the first place!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Why can't we use bulletproof and Windows in the same sentence? According to the report it was the AV scanner that caused the application to crash. The PC was then required to be rebooted for the application to start working correctly. Arguably the client software is at fault for not being able to recover from a situation where "communications" get lost. In this case, it didn't sound like the Windows system had any issue. Furthermore, I have experienced many Windows servers who are happy to sit in a corner and chug away for years without issues. Does Windows have its flaws? Sure, but so does any other operating system - and in general I don't find Windows to be so unstable these days. It's usually 3rd party software, written to use higher level privileges than it really needs, to take down Windows. But any poorly written, high privilege software can take down any OS.
IIRC the EULA of every Windows version so far said that the OS must not be used in life-or-death critical operations.
Not that it isn't used in, say, nuclear plants (which are explicitly cited in the EULA, btw), but if you use something that is clearly not good enough for the job, and even tells you that it's too crappy for important tasks, well, you can't really complain, can you?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This is what I don't get. Why the hell is AV software running on a realtime apparatus?
1: If AV software is needed for legal eagle reasons, code a scanner for embedded use that runs -only- when the machine is offline and not doing anything. When the switch to online it is flipped, any scans and such get stopped immediately.
2: A medical machine should be air-gapped anyway, with firmware updates done via files on a signed SD card. There should never be a vector for introducing malware onto a machine without physical access.
3: Have the designers even done testing where the AV software (or even worse, GWX) fires up during a procedure? This is basic Q&A here, and for the astronomical cost of medical equipment, should be assumed that this was done.
From TFA, I'd lay the blame of this at the feet of the device maker. They need to use a real OS, or at least ensure that there is no state their environment can get into that can cause this.
This is what I don't get. Why the hell is AV software running on a realtime apparatus?
1: If AV software is needed for legal eagle reasons, code a scanner for embedded use that runs -only- when the machine is offline and not doing anything. When the switch to online it is flipped, any scans and such get stopped immediately.
2: A medical machine should be air-gapped anyway, with firmware updates done via files on a signed SD card. There should never be a vector for introducing malware onto a machine without physical access.
3: Have the designers even done testing where the AV software (or even worse, GWX) fires up during a procedure? This is basic Q&A here, and for the astronomical cost of medical equipment, should be assumed that this was done.
From TFA, I'd lay the blame of this at the feet of the device maker. They need to use a real OS, or at least ensure that there is no state their environment can get into that can cause this.
The AV software wasn't running on the medical device, it was running on the Doctor's computer. The Doctor's computer has a software app that gathers data from the medical device and, it seems, that there is some requirement for the medical device to be able to read this data as well. Or perhaps the App has some command and control functions. Either way, the AV software ran, freezing up the app on the doctors computer and causing the medical device to crash.
In my opinion, the hospital should have an air-gapped dedicated system for this instead of relying on the doctor's laptop.
And Bulletproof and Windows never belong in the same sentence.
What OS does bullet proof belong in a sentence with? Name an OS that can prevent a client application from crashing due to being poorly coded? Windows doesn't crash itself. At least I haven't heard of a case of windows spontaneously stopping for shits and giggles since the 49.7 day bug of Windows 95/98. Windows is only typically brought down by poorly coded drivers, poorly coded software, or failing hardware, all of which should be under tight control on medical equipment anyway.
Oh please, I get Windows systems to fix after every update. It doesn't take a BSOD to render an application unusable.
If you aren't the absolute proof of the ultimate Windows shill, there is none. Jesus dude, Let us just hope that you never go for a medical procedure, the Windows based computer fucks up, you suffer and die.
With your last breath, and on your tombstone, you'll want everyone to know "This was NOT Window's fault!!
For you see, my dear chachalaca, you go apeshit nuts, fearing that I disparage your precious Operating system, when I'm saying that not one, not any, not in a million years, should a life critical ever be connected in any way, any form, any remote chance of connecting to the internet.
Windows or otherwise. And as Windows based systems are compromised in hospitals all over the country, rest easy that it is never their fault. Perhaps its time that Hospitals shift to Operating systems that accept some accountability.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Having a Windows based medical system is stupidity in itself. Even having an antivirus scan in embedded software is ridiculous, they should be stand alone devices, not dependent upon some apathetic home consumer company, not connected to the internet, etc. And yet so many developers are so amazingly uneducated and inexperienced that they think Windows is the perfect solution to everything, managers love Windows because they can hire so many cheap ass developers for it and mistakenly think they can save time this way. Maybe Windows is not the flaw, but the Windows mindset certainly is.