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Writing Secure Code Or Installing An Anti Virus?

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After reading an article labeled “What is more important – patient safety or hospital IT?” I wanted to offer a slightly alternative read in the hopes of 1) getting more discussions going, 2) giving the readers an alternative perspective 3) countering/clarifying certain statements on that article. While I don’t believe the author set out to just create a “whitepaper” like writing, I do believe the author should have taken some time to “think about what he is trying to convey first, do some serious research, and then write an article.”

In the article, my inference was: “medical devices manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves, and should foresee everybody else’s problems.” As evidenced by the introductory statement:

“What is more important – patient safety or the health of the enterprise hospital Windows network? What is more important – writing secure code or installing an anti-virus?”

I am unsure who this question was aimed at, but a medical device manufacturer has no bearing on “Windows” or “Anti-Virus” when you get down to the nitty gritty. Nor should a medical device manufacturer be tasked with the responsibilities of a hospital purchased and owned system that has USB ports on them. And alas: “a decision was taken to migrate the medical device OS platform to embedded Linux to eliminate typical Microsoft Windows network and removable device vulnerabilities.” What is “typical Microsoft Windows network/removable device vulnerabilities” - what does that even mean, I

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