Medigate, an Israli-based digital health startup has raised $5.35M in seed funding to expand its dedicated medical device security
platform that protects all of the connected medical devices on healthcare provider networks. The seed round was led by YL Ventures, with additional funding from Blumberg Capital. The company will use the seed funding to continue to accelerate its development efforts of its medical device security platform. The Medigate Security Platform is currently in limited availability to qualified customers with general availability starting in mid-2018.
Healthcare providers today depend on nearly 100 million connected medical devices to deliver innovative, cost-effective and lifesaving treatment to patients, and the number of these connected devices is expected to double in the next 2-3 years. Unfortunately, the incidence of actual cyberattacks targeting healthcare providers is also skyrocketing. IT and security operations teams must do more to protect both their organizations and their patients. Medigate was created to address these challenges.
The Medigate solution is a dedicated platform for securing networked medical devices that are connected to electronic medical records, device servers, other enterprise systems and the internet. Medigate’s solution fuses the knowledge and understanding of medical workflow and device identity and protocols with the reality of today’s cybersecurity threats.
Only Medigate can provide visibility into all the medical devices connected to the network, fully identify these devices by type and personality and analyze and understand their specialized protocols, communications and behaviors. By using this knowledge to detect anomalies and suspicious activities, Medigate protects connected medical devices from network attacks and data exfiltration attempts.
Today, organizations depend on existing cybersecurity products, such as general-purpose firewalls, as well as current IT best practices, to secure connected medical devices. However, because medical devices are different from other IT devices, these approaches fall dramatically short in effectiveness. Medical devices can’t be patched, updated online or actively managed with endpoint security software products. Existing firewalls fail to understand how these devices work and communicate, leaving them vulnerable to attacks over both typical network protocols and unique medical device protocols. And while device manufacturers will continue to deliver more secure devices, today’s secure device often becomes tomorrow’s risk when targeted by creative and determined attackers.
By delivering a dedicated medical device security platform, Medigate allows providers to more safely operate all medical devices on their network. Medigate discovers and secures existing and new devices, ensuring that these devices continue to deliver lifesaving treatments and protect patient confidentiality.
“Connected medical devices – from patient monitors, MRIs and CAT scanners to infusion pumps and yet-to-be invented devices — are critical to the delivery of healthcare today and are revolutionizing the care of tomorrow,” said Yoav Leitersdorf, managing partner at YL Ventures, which led the Medigate funding round. “These devices are inherently different from traditional IT endpoints and can’t be protected by currently available products and practices. With the pandemic of cyberattacks targeting healthcare providers, far too many connected devices are left vulnerable and exposed, putting patient health and privacy at risk. Medigate’s solution directly addresses this crucial problem by mitigating targeted attacks on medical devices.”
