medical pcs

Waterproof Properties of Medical PCs

Computers have become the backbone of the health care industry. They allow medical workers to efficiently process patient cases, control devices that perform CT scans, ultrasounds, MRIs, or blood tests, and help doctors show patients their X-rays to explain their situation.

And given the technical demands of the health care environment, purchasing waterproof medical PCs that can withstand incidents like blood and vomit splatter is crucial. But how can you know if a medical PC is waterproof?

Let’s find out. 

Why Do Medical PCs Need to Be Waterproof?

As medical PCs are used in ICUs, emergency rooms, and wards, they’re often exposed to fluids like vomit, blood, or urine that could penetrate inside and damage the motherboard or processor of the computer, rendering it unusable. 

And this is not a farfetched scenario. 

In reality, liquid spills are par for the course in hospitals, so the likelihood of liquid exposure is very high. Also, a medical PC that shuts down in the middle of an operation can be disastrous for the patient, surgeon, and hospital. 

So, all medical PCs must have an IP65 rating, which means they must come with sealed bezels and zero crevices that could lead to water intake. 

3 Properties That Make Medical PCs Waterproof

Medical PCs aren’t like consumer-grade PCs, which have dozens of crevices through which water can sneak in. But what makes them different?  

  1. They Have Sealed Bezels 

Unlike conventional PCs, medical PCs come with sealed front bezels that prevent water from penetrating the PC components. 

As a result, the likelihood of the PC’s processor being soaked in an accidental liquid spill decreases, allowing surgeries and screenings to continue in even the dampest environments.   

  1. They Have Waterproof Panels

Hospitals and other health care environments are pits of bacteria, so medical PCs have to be scrubbed every few hours with antibiotic and antiviral solutions to keep infections at bay. 

As a result, their outer surfaces have to be water-resistant so water doesn’t seep into the inner components when they are scrubbed using chlorine-water solutions or alcohol. 

  1. They Have an IP65 Rating

An IP65 rating protects an appliance against condensation, water spray, and low-pressure water jets from all directions. Medical PCs usually have an IP65 rating, which means they’re protected against accidental liquid spills in the hospital environment. 

The Bottom Line

The hospital environment is a hotbed of liquid spills and constant antimicrobial scrubbing, so any PC used in a health care setting is likely to get soaked at one time or another. And if the PC isn’t waterproof, it may be damaged beyond repair. 

Thus, medical PCs, such as Tangent’s Medix M27T and Medix M24T, should have sealed bezels, an IP65 rating, and waterproof panels to withstand the hospital environment. 

How DMARC Protects Businesses

Did you know that one email in every 99 is a phishing attack? Or that around 25 percent of these emails usually make their way into inboxes? 

And the worst thing is that more than 97 percent of people can’t identify what a spam email looks like. So, many of them fall for socially engineered attacks like phishing, scareware, quid pro quo, and baiting. 

Even companies like Google, Facebook, and Target aren’t infallible. That raises the question: how can you protect your business from email phishing and other socially engineered attacks? 

This is where DMARC comes in. But what is DMARC, and how does it protect your business from phishing, email hijacking, or scareware? Let’s break it down. 

What Is DMARC?

Domain-based Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) is a technical protocol that handles emails that aren’t authenticated by DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and the Sender Policy Framework (SPF). 

It helps protect email senders and recipients from email phishing, spoofing, and impersonation fraud, which can be the source of data breaches and email compromises. DMARC allows domain owners to specify actions that need to be taken when an email fails DKIM and SPF authentication. 

Email receivers can check whether incoming messages have valid DKIM and SPF records and whether they align with the domain of origin. If these messages don’t comply with DKIM and SPF records, they are labeled DMARC-failed. 

How Does DMARC Handle Failed Email? 

You have the option to handle a DMARC-failed message based on three different DMARC policies, including: 

  • The Monitor Policy: p=noneIt will provide insights into who sent a DMARC-failed email, but it won’t stop the email from reaching your primary inbox. 
  • The Quarantine Policy: p=quarantine It will send DMARC-failed emails into the spam folder and DMARC-passed emails into your primary inbox, reducing the harm caused by spam emails.  
  • The Reject Policy: p=rejectIt will stop DMARC-failed emails from reaching your inbox entirely, preventing phishing or spoofing attacks.  

4 Ways DMARC Protects Businesses

DMARC aims to protect businesses and users from socially engineered attacks. Here’s how it accomplishes that goal:

  1. It Increases Domain Visibility

DMARC’s monitoring “p=none” policy reports all email activity, so you can assess all the emails sent from your domain, those you received, which emails were authenticated, those that weren’t authenticated, and for what reasons. 

  1. It Only Allows Certain Domains to Send Emails

If attackers use a trusted domain, they can penetrate your company’s defenses and deceive your employees or customers, often causing irreparable damage to your brand image and decreasing brand trust. 

DMARC can prevent that by only allowing authorized IPS to send emails from your domain. 

  1. It Blocks Fraudulent Emails 

DMARC’s reject policy allows you to control whether or not suspicious emails are delivered to your email. So, if a specific email doesn’t pass DKIM and SPF records, you can reject it before it causes problems. 

It also blocks business email compromise (BEC) scams, which occur when criminals impersonate business employees within a company. 

  1. It Increases Legitimate Email Delivery 

As DMARC checks the domains and IPs of every incoming and outgoing email, it ensures that only legitimate emails get delivered to your primary inbox. This prevents phishing, spoofing, and compromise scams. 

The Bottom Line

Hackers are always looking for ways to get into your systems and domains. But DMARC can derail their efforts, saving your business time and money. 

It prevents your company’s email from being used for phishing, scareware, and other social engineering attacks, makes phishing attacks visible, mitigates the impact of malware and phishing attacks, and protects you from BEC scams.

So, ensure your company’s safety and maintain your customers’ trust by getting a DMARC protocol coded into your domain today. 

Why Medical PCs Still Have Serial Ports

When everybody’s using USB ports, having a medical computer with a serial port can seem like you’re ten steps behind everyone in the tech world. 

That’s not true.  

Serial ports are not obsolete. They’re usually used to connect older hospital equipment with new computers. But is that the only reason serial ports are still used today? Let’s find out.  

What Are Serial Ports?

A serial port is a connection interface used to join serial devices, such as modems, to a computer. It allows the computer to transfer one bit at a time. 

Serial ports were invented in the ‘80s and are the oldest types of interfaces currently being used. They are usually used as communication devices for flat-screen monitors, bar-code scanners, and GPS receivers. 

Uses of Serial Ports

Serial ports are used to connect some of the following serial devices: 

  • Mice, usually on computers without USB or PS/2 connections.
  • Modems, such as cable and DSL modems.
  • Printers, mostly older models.  
  • Network devices like switches, webcams, routers, repeaters, bridges, etc. 

Serial Ports vs. USB Ports

There are several differences between USB and serial ports, such as:

  • Serial ports transfer data at the speed of 1 to 10 Mbps, while USB (Gen 1) ports transfer data at up to 12 Mbps. 
  • USB ports can provide power, but serial ports cannot. 
  • Serial ports use fragile pins that are easy to bend or break. In contrast, USB pins are stronger and more difficult to damage. 

So, if serial ports are so bad, why are they even used anymore? 

Why Do Medical PCs Still Have Serial Ports?

Despite being slow in our modern age, serial ports are used in the medical industry because they are easy to use, do not require custom drivers, and are supported by most operating systems. 

Moreover, a lot of the medical equipment currently used in the health care industry features serial ports because of their ease of use and reliability, and the only way to transfer data to legacy tech is through serial ports, making them invaluable.

The Takeaway

Serial ports aren’t obsolete or bad. Instead, they are some of the most useful connection ports in the health care industry. They connect medical PCs and serial devices together. 

Moreover, they also link legacy devices to computers, allowing the transfer of data that otherwise would’ve gone unused.    

So, we should give credit where it’s due, and in the case of serial ports, their efforts have gone unrecognized for too long.