Case Study: Global Leading Medical Technology Company achieves risk prioritization and secure wireless redesign with Synopsys threat modeling

Redesigning an Implantable Medical Device Communication Protocol

A global medical-technology leader redesigning the communication protocol for a neuro-implantable device engaged Synopsys after struggling to determine whether a new wireless design was introducing flaws. The firm had no risk prioritization strategy, its existing threat-modeling tools produced over 300 flagged items, and business and engineering teams were misaligned—business leaders wanted to remove a costly proximity-based authentication component, while engineers were concerned the proposed Diffie-Hellman key exchange lacked equivalent authentication and increased security risk.

Synopsys performed a systematic threat-model assessment—interviewing the team, reviewing designs, and producing a traceability matrix mapping assets, threats, attack vectors, controls, and draft requirements. The effort identified root-cause risks (notably battery life, key disclosure, confidentiality, and integrity), enabled prioritized, actionable requirements and test plans, reduced the long list of findings to a focused set of tangible risks, aligned stakeholders, and allowed the team to move into design and implementation quickly with clearer, verifiable mitigations.