Siemens Healthineers Awarded Research Contract to Improve Device Cyber Resilience

Siemens Healthineers is working with the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to enhance medical device cyber resilience.

The average hospital experiences more than 2,300 cyberattacks per week,¹ costing the industry billions annually. ARPA-H’s Universal Patching and Remediation for Autonomous Defense (UPGRADE) program aims to create new tools to help hospitals’ information technology teams better detect and remediate cyber-threats.² Siemens Healthineers will serve as the principal research institution for the Secure Healthcare Infrastructure Enhancement and Defense (SHIELD) project under the UPGRADE program, with activities based at its AI Factory in Princeton, N.J.

Under the agreement, Siemens Healthineers and its research partners, Siemens Corporation, Axonius, and Kraetonics, will execute this collaborative project with a $6.9 million budget for Phase I. The partners will develop an autonomous cyber-threat solution that enables proactive security updates, reducing the uncertainty and manual effort necessary to secure hospitals.

The SHIELD project deploys an exa-scale simulation—consisting of more than 1 quintillion operations per second—to identify optimal solutions for cyber resilience within medical technology products, placing particular emphasis on applications that affect continuity of care. SHIELD plans to develop a solution that addresses the difficult balance between cybersecurity, patient care, and revenue within hospital environments. When cybersecurity vulnerabilities are detected, or ransomware incidents occur, hospitals may need to suspend the operation of major imaging equipment until remediation. Since 2016, cyberattacks have cost the healthcare industry more than $77 billion, with over $15 billion in 2023 alone.³ The increasingly prevalent attacks have led to delays in treatment, procedure cancellations, reliance on paper records, and ambulance diversions from emergency rooms.⁴

Hospital cyberattacks are typically conducted through pervasive vulnerabilities in IT systems. Thus, 53% of all hospital equipment currently contains critical vulnerabilities,⁵ and 96% of hospitals have equipment with these vulnerabilities. The average time to apply critical security updates to hospital equipment is currently 491 days⁶—more than one year—leaving critical vulnerabilities open to exploitation. In many cases, hospital cybersecurity teams are understaffed and cannot perform all available updates; clinical staff further delay updates due to fears about updates impacting clinical workflows.

SHIELD will run detailed simulations to determine the most important systems and vulnerabilities to patch or remediate and find the best timing for those activities. The focus will be on the device and equipment interactions occurring within hospitals, with a special emphasis on patient visits to specialty areas such as imaging and lab. Large-scale medical record data will allow for detailed simulations of patient and clinical staff interactions to accurately portray the effects of device and equipment disruption on both the patients and staff. This solution will also offer alternative staffing, equipment, and department options, as well as patient scheduling recommendations that will best maintain patient care.

“We are grateful for the funding provided by ARPA-H to enable our research of this important issue. As AI and automation continue to advance, it is essential to address cybersecurity risks with diligence. By determining effective remediation strategies, we help safeguard patient data and ensure the continuous operation of major imaging equipment,” said Dorin Comaniciu, senior vice president, artificial intelligence and digital innovation at Siemens Healthineers.

The SHIELD team is partnering with hospital systems that represent the range of U.S. medical facilities, from state-of-the-art to under-resourced rural community hospitals. Through its longstanding Value Partnerships with healthcare providers, Siemens Healthineers brings a grounded perspective to the SHIELD project. These deep, collaborative relationships provide insight into real-world clinical workflows, operational constraints, and cybersecurity challenges, ensuring that the research is informed by the realities hospitals face every day and will be designed to deliver practical, community-relevant impact.

“As cyber risks continue to grow across all industries, we are committed to strengthening healthcare security by prioritizing patient safety, data privacy, and cyber resilience—helping to prevent disruptions that can affect patient care,” stated Carlos Arglebe, head of cybersecurity at Siemens Healthineers. “By collaborating with experts and leveraging data and technology, we can deliver faster, more effective protection where it matters most. This ARPA-H-funded project represents a unique opportunity to jointly advance cybersecurity across the healthcare ecosystem.”

ARPA-H is a biomedical funding agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that supports accelerated high-impact research to deliver health breakthroughs in years rather than decades.

Siemens Healthineers is a global provider of healthcare equipment, solutions and services, with activities in more than 180 countries and direct representation in over 70. The group comprises Siemens Healthineers AG, listed as SHL in Frankfurt, Germany, and its subsidiaries. The company is principally active in imaging, diagnostics, cancer care, and minimally invasive therapies, augmented by digital technology and artificial intelligence. In fiscal 2025, which ended Sept. 30, 2025, Siemens Healthineers employed approximately 74,000 workers worldwide and generated around €23.4 billion in revenue.

References
¹ World Health Day 2025: When Cyber Security Fails, So Does Public Health – Check Point Blog
² UPGRADE Awardees | ARPA-H
³ Ransomware attacks on US healthcare organizations cost $20.8bn
⁴ Cyber-Attacks on Hospital Systems: A Narrative Review – ScienceDirect
⁵ The Ironic State of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices – PMC
⁶ Operation Patchlight | IFP