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5 WAYS TO KEEP VACCINE ‘COLD CHAIN’ SAFE FROM HACKERS

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Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center associate chief of pharmacy operations Terrence Wong opens a box containing a shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine before storing it in a freezer on December 15, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado.

Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center associate chief of pharmacy operations Terrence Wong opens a box containing a shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine before storing it in a freezer on December 15, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado.

A major health system commissioned the study, which finds that an attacker located near equipment like freezers and coolers could use electromagnetic interference generated by simple devices like walkie-talkies to fool temperature sensors into giving false readings.

The interference could cause a cooler’s temperature monitor to falsely indicate that the vaccine inside has become too warm to use, or it could cause a freezer to malfunction and spoil its contents.

The good news is there are simple steps that hospitals and health systems can take to protect themselves. Kevin Fu, then associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, led the study. Fu later joined the FDA as acting director of medical device cybersecurity. He recommends the following five steps:

1. Restrict access to data like temperature displays

A potential attacker might try to devise a hack using trial and error—trying several different types of electromagnetic interference (EMI), such as radio waves from walkie-talkies, while watching temperature displays or other data to see which type of interference is effective.

  1. Health systems can protect against this kind of attacker by making data points like temperature readouts less visible. This could be done by:
  2. Installing blinders on temperature displays, similar to those on ATMs and voting machines.
  3. Eliminating real-time temperature displays when possible.
  4. Moving displays to make them less visible—for example, turning a display so it can’t be seen through a room’s doorway.
  5. Restricting access to areas where temperature displays are located.

2. Keep the details about your sensors confidential

If a prospective attacker knows which sensors you use, they could buy an identical model, then work out the details of an attack off-site. Health systems can reduce the likelihood of this by keeping model numbers and other details about the temperature sensors in equipment like coolers and freezers confidential.

3. Keep the locations of your sensors confidential, and move them frequently

To successfully carry out an attack, a hacker must put an EMI device within a certain distance of the targeted equipment. There are a number of ways that health systems can make that more difficult. They include:

  1. Keep the locations of cold chain equipment confidential.
  2. Frequently moving equipment to different locations.
  3. Moving equipment toward the center of the rooms where they’re stored. This makes it more difficult to carry out an attack from an adjoining room.

4. Select the lowest possible sensor sampling rate

Temperature sensors take measurements at pre-set sampling rates—for example, once every five minutes. And a sensor with a lower sampling rate provides less data that a hacker could use to carry out an attack.

5. Use a sensor that’s less susceptible to electromagnetic energy

Depending on specific application, it may be possible to use a sensor that’s less susceptible to interference than a traditional thermocouple, like an on-chip integrated temperature sensor or a chemical-based temperature indicator.

Read more at 5 WAYS TO KEEP VACCINE ‘COLD CHAIN’ SAFE FROM HACKERS

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Understanding COVID-19 and the vaccine cold chain

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Understanding COVID-19 and the vaccine cold chain

Understanding COVID-19 and the vaccine cold chain

B Medical Systems discusses the importance of reliable, high quality bio-medical storage and the crucial impact of the vaccine cold chain.
Optimal cold chain infrastructures are vital if vaccines are to reach healthcare facilities at temperatures where their efficacy remains unchanged. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only highlighted the disparities in vaccine roll outs around the world but the logistical hurdles that can arise when transporting and storing medical equipment at ultra-low temperatures. B Medical Systems offers a range of cold chain solutions that can be used to store and transport vital vaccines, medicines and samples around the world. Here, they tell Health Europa Quarterly (HEQ) about some of the key challenges in the vaccine cold chain and how their over ­40 years in operation have helped them become a global leader in providing cutting-edge medical devices.

What sets B Medical Systems’ refrigeration units apart from similar products on the market?

The main factor that sets B Medical Systems apart from other manufacturers out there is our history as experts in the provision of cold chain solutions for vaccines. During our 40 plus years of operations, we have gone through all the ups and downs of the industry; testing our equipment in the most rugged territories in the world. Our main business is in the vaccine cold chain in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia and the experiences that we gained from those areas flow into every product that we have.

What key challenges have you experienced related to transporting vaccines in inhospitable regions?

The main challenge is logistics. Most people will have a refrigerator at home but there are a lot of areas and households in the world that do not have access to power, and the same is true of medical facilities. How do you get a vaccine that is produced with the highest standards in some Western countries – be it Germany, the US, or the UK – to areas without the necessary facilities to keep vaccines stable and stored correctly?

Aside from storing the COVID-19 vaccine, what are some other existing or potential applications for ultra-low temperature freezers?

Any kind of current or future mRNA vaccine that needs or will need to be stored for a long period of time will require storage in an ULT freezer. This though would not be required for those vaccines that only need to be stored for up to two weeks, for instance, but certainly any biological specimen – human, animal and even plant specimens – that you want to store over a longer period need to be stored in an ULT.

Read more at Understanding COVID-19 and the vaccine cold chain

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