CybersecurityHackers can dupe radiologists, AI software

Published 3 April 2019

Hackers can access a patient’s 3-D medical scans to add or remove malignant lung cancer, and deceive both radiologists and artificial intelligence algorithms used to aid diagnosis, according to a new study.

Hackers can access a patient’s 3-D medical scans to add or remove malignant lung cancer, and deceive both radiologists and artificial intelligence algorithms used to aid diagnosis, according to a new study published by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev cybersecurity researchers. Click here for video of the attack.

A 3-D CT (computerized tomography) scan combines a series of X-Ray images taken from different angles around the body and uses computer processing to create cross-sectional images (slices) of the bones, blood vessels and soft tissues. CT scan images provide more detailed information than standard X-Rays, and are used to diagnose cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases, and more. An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan is similar, but uses powerful magnetic fields to diagnose bone, joint, ligament, and cartilage conditions.

Malicious attackers can tamper with the scans to deliberately cause a misdiagnosis for insurance fraud, ransomware, cyberterrorism, or even murder. Attackers can even automate the entire process in a malware which can infect the hospital’s network.

“Our research shows how an attacker can realistically add or remove medical conditions from CT and MRI scans,” says Dr. Yisroel Mirsky, lead researcher in the BGU Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering (SISE), project manager and cybersecurity researcher at BGU’s National Cyber Security Research Center. “In particular, we show how easily an attacker can access a hospital’s network, and then inject or remove lung cancers from a patient’s CT scan.”

The attacker has full control over the number, size and locations of the cancers while preserving the same anatomy from the original, full resolution 3-D image. This is a significant threat since 3-D medical scans are considered to provide more definitive evidence than preliminary 2-D X-Rays.