Healthcare organizations are quickly adopting and deploying a bevy of cloud-based, “Internet of Things” (IoT)-enabled patient care devices, from vital monitors and patient engagement apps, to IV controls, pacemakers and other direct assistance aids.

But those devices pose a growing security risk to those organizations’ ability to protect patient data and, in some cases, a potential risk to patient lives, according to a draft whitepaper by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“Threats to IoT devices are real and growing,” reported HealthITSecurity‘s Fred Donovan, citing a recent FBI advisory statement that warned “cybercriminals are searching for and compromising IoT devices to use as proxies for internet requests to route traffic for cyberattacks and network exploitation.”

Could cybercriminals or other nefarious actors remotely seize control of medical devices and ransom patient data, or even stop their critical functions? Could they turn a healthcare organization’s own equipment against it and threaten care delivery?

Read more about the issue in HealthITSecurity.