Key TakeawaysChinese medical devices, like Contec CMS8000, carry cybersecurity risks, such as backdoors that could manipulate patient data.Chinas data collection through medical tech raises national security concerns, especially for high-profile individuals.The U.S. must reduce reliance on Chinese medical equipment by securing current devices and boosting domestic production.If theres one thing Chinese tech has lately made headlines for, its security concerns. After DeepSeeks ban and TikTok still living on the edge, the US government is now worried about its dependence on China-made medical devices.The concerns cropped up after the federal governments cyber watchdog, CISA, and the FDA discovered a backdoor in Contec CMS8000 that directs its data to a third-party university IP address not associated with a medical device manufacturer or medical facility.The Contec CMS8000, in case you didnt know, is a widely used medical monitor. Its used for tracking heart rate, oxygen saturation, and blood pressure. If the backdoor leads to someone unauthorized, the person at the other end will be able to manipulate data and show incorrect results.For instance, it can alter the data and make the monitor show a kidney malfunction or breathing failure when in reality that isnt the case. Remedying issues that dont even exist can deteriorate the health of patients to unrecoverable extents.While on the surface, we can just see one risky device, the issue is actually pretty huge if we consider how this could be affecting the entire US ecosystem. Since Chinese medical equipment is cheaper, it is widely used in the US. This FDA finding alerts us that China receives all this data and could be using it for more than just monitoring the performance of its devices.China has had a history of gathering data from other countries through tech, and something as sensitive as medical data can give a huge strategic advantage to the country since it can access the private circumstances of high-profile individuals.Many IT experts reacted by saying they saw something like this coming long back and it only serves as a reminder that the US needs to adopt tighter medical device security policies and work on its medical infrastructure.The American Hospital Association, representative of more than 5,000 hospitals across the US, agreed that this incident has highlighted a huge gap thats about to explode.What Steps Will the US Take NextRight off the bat, the first problem is that the US doesnt even know how many medical monitors there are in the country. So, completely removing them from the country will be a tricky procedure. Speculations say there are thousands of devices, but without a ballpark figure, it wont be possible to determine how many are required to be replaced.Next, the US is too dependent on Chinas facilities to just decide to cut off Chinese pieces of medical equipment. It will take at least a few years for the country to develop a medical infrastructure thats capable of taking care of the countrys demand for medical technologies.Now, the short-term solution is for hospitals to make sure these devices only run locally and disable any remote monitoring. If remote monitoring is unavoidable, they should start looking for alternative devices.Besides this, the U.S. should start incentivizing domestic production of medical tech to reduce reliance on such compromised foreign medical services.Add Techreport to Your Google News Feed Get the latest updates, trends, and insights delivered straight to your fingertips. Subscribe now! Subscribe now Amy Clark has extensive knowledge of the SaaS market. She started her journey managing and supporting the content at systeme.io before becoming a writer and then in-house managing editor for Techreport, where she manages the delivery and quality of the content, spanning reviews, comparisons, and buyer guides. When she's not advocating for animal rights, you'll find her lost in the world of video games. View all articles by Amy Clark Our editorial processThe Tech Reporteditorial policyis centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written byreal authors.