A Quantitative Study of Firewall Vulnerability and Management in Medical Device Security
Open Access DepositedThis praxis examines how firewall management, when connected at the device level, influences security across healthcare systems. Maintaining current firewall settings can reduce risks to patients and limit disruptions from threats such as buffer overflow exploits or ransomware, including the WannaCry outbreak. To study this, the research applies chi-square, Mann-Whitney U, and t-tests to the RT-IoT2022 dataset, which captures network activity during simulated attacks such as Denial-of-Service (DoS) events and buffer overflow attempts. The results point to repeated weak spots in firewalls connected to medical devices, especially around high-risk services such as FTP, SSH, and HTTP. Poorly maintained firewalls allowed more unwanted traffic, with about 88% of unauthorized attempts trying to reach blocked ports. Other results showed that when firewalls were not maintained, they struggled to handle two-way network traffic during an attack. This was evident in lower backward-to-forward packet ratios, which made connections less stable. DoS attacks on these firewalls pushed packet rates up to 30,000 times above normal and cut connection stability by more than half, showing how traffic floods can interfere with hospital operations. These findings show that weak oversight during a firewall’s life can expose hospitals to threats that could have been avoided. This study offers guidance for hospital administrators to strengthen Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) practices. By scheduling regular reviews and setting clear policies for firewall upkeep, healthcare facilities can reduce exposure to preventable security issues.
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