Divurgent, a healthcare consulting firm, and Sensato, a firm specializing in cybersecurity, have formed the Medical Device Cybersecurity Task Force, along with hospitals, cybersecurity researchers, IT leaders and medical device manufacturers.

The group plans to collaboratively develop cost-effective best practices and approaches to securing medical devices in healthcare organizations. Now that organizations can buy medical devices, such as IV smart pumps, on websites such as eBay, cyberattackers are able to dissect a device’s system, learn how to compromise its security, and ultimately take control of the devices, thereby potentially affecting patient safety, according to the group.

“We see this risk as something that goes beyond a market opportunity and requires an effective and coordinated call to arms,” said Colin Konschak, Divurgent’s CEO and managing partner. “Our goal is to rally the industry and help drive practical solutions that secure the lives of patients before something happens that we would all collectively regret.”

The task force also intends to act as an intelligence liaison that allows for the collecting and sharing of potential threat intelligence with its members and government agencies.

Five healthcare organizations are members of the task force. Divurgent and Sensato are providing resources and funding to sustain the organization, and will work as the key coordinators for the task force. The practices developed by the task force will be made available under an open source basis, with the hope that the healthcare industry as a whole will benefit from its work.

“We are no longer in a world where identity theft is our only critical concern, but we are now faced with very really challenges related to patient safety,” said John Gomez, CEO of Sensato. “To sit back and wait for something to occur is inappropriate. Our industry has extremely talented people with tremendous passion who want to take up the fight. We just need to provide a platform that gets people working together, and the Medical Device Cybersecurity Task Force is that platform.”