Healthcare cyberattacks hit pacemakers and millions of patient records

Two major healthcare businesses, Boston Scientific and McKesson, disclosed more details over the weekend about separate cyberattacks that disrupted global operations and resulted in stolen patient data, respectively. Medical-device maker Boston Scientific, whose IT systems were hacked by unknown intruders last week, said the …

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear El Reg reporter, there is but one question you must ask..

.. were they running Microsoft?

In about 99% of cases the answer will be yes, and that's really the only answer you need.

The rest is detail - let's get to the root of the problem.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Dear El Reg reporter, there is but one question you must ask..

A walker opens a gate, walks into a field with a bull in it, gets trampled to death. There was a warning sign on the fence saying "Danger Bull In Field", they had also been told many times about the threat of bulls.

Who do you blame for the death? The walker, the bull, the gate manufacturer, or the farmer who owns the field?

[druck]

Re: Dear El Reg reporter, there is but one question you must ask..

The walker isn't buying a licence to use the field which the farmers marketing department is continually claiming is more bull free than ever before.

[Will Godfrey]

WTF

Why is such critical information being handled and transmitted via such an inherently unstable chain of communication?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: WTF

Because accounting decisions were deemed more important than safe engineering principles? Just guessing here..

[Victorjoye531]

ackers Target Pacemaker Data & Extort Millions of Patient Records

This is terrifying to read, especially the part about the pacemakers—you really hope critical medical infrastructure would be isolated from this kind of vulnerability. The reliance on social engineering (vishing) for the McKesson breach just proves again that humans are almost always the easiest entry point into these massive cloud environments, no matter how much money is poured into baseline security. Thanks for sharing the write-up!

[Taliesinawen]

Good Grief Charlie Brown!

> Medical-device maker Boston Scientific .. noted that pacemakers and other heart devices implanted after the August 25 breach cannot provide remote monitoring and data transmission as intended.

These providers of these systems really really need to be held to account. As in massive fines and jail time. No doubt it was some third party app affecting only a small number of customers and the records were all old anyways /s

--

posted 12:02 01/09/2026

[Stevie]

Bah!

I see El Reg commentators are yelling about Microsoft, Sueing, Jail Time as usual, without noting that the way in was via a successful phishing expedition.

The fools who succumbed are to blame. They are the ones who are squarely in the sights of the "sue, fine, imprison" claque.

One might wonder about the nature of the training involved.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm...

This might explain the early Monday morning, missed, call from the cardiologists office about my pacemaker. Or the fact that late Sunday the old ticker was trying to do backflips and the device ratted me out to them.