A Heart Device Is Found Vulnerable to Hacker Attacks

[flashl]

Source: NY Times

To the long list of objects vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, add the human heart.

The threat seems largely theoretical. But a team of computer security researchers plans to report Wednesday that it had been able to gain wireless access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker.

They were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that would potentially be fatal — if the device had been in a person. In this case, the researcher were hacking into a device in a laboratory.

The researchers said they had also been able to glean personal patient data by eavesdropping on signals from the tiny wireless radio that Medtronic, the device’s maker, had embedded in the implant as a way to let doctors monitor and adjust it without surgery.

The report, to published at www.secure-medicine.org, makes clear that the hundreds of thousands of people in this country with implanted defibrillators or pacemakers to regulate their damaged hearts — they include Vice President Dick Cheney — have no need yet to fear hackers. The experiment required more than $30,000 worth of lab equipment and a sustained effort by a team of specialists from the University of Washington and the University of Massachusetts to interpret the data gathered from the implant’s signals. And the device the researchers tested, a combination defibrillator and pacemaker called the Maximo, was placed within two inches of the test gear.

NY Times

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/business/12heart-web.html?pagewanted=print

---

"people in this country with implanted defibrillators or pacemakers to regulate their damaged hearts — they include Vice President Dick Cheney — have no need yet to fear hackers"?

Yeah, most hackers work in labs with expensive equipment.

[Tyler Durden]

1. I'm not saying a single word.

La-te-da, hm HM hmm hmm.

[Autumn Colors]

4. No need to .... my first thought exactly. LOL (nm)

[laylah]

9. Great minds

think alike :rofl:

[havocmom]

11. even mediocre minds like mine...

ooo oooo oooooooo ... ::zip it havocmom::

[AnneD]

14. wonder how many others....

on this site had similar thoughts. Made my week. :evilgrin:

[DinahMoeHum]

15. ". . .what we can't say we can breathe right in your ear. . ."

;)

[Warpy]

16. Me, too

I've actually had the thoughts before, having seen defib/pacemakers interrogated at the bedside and adjusted as needed.

[trashcanistanista]

12. First thought too. Does he have a medical device?

I'm not up on his medical records.

[trashcanistanista]

13. Ooops, just finished reading the o.p.

Apparently he does. I answered my own question.

[Megahurtz]

17. Pffft...

:spray: Aaaaaaaaaahahahahahaha!

[wain]

2. Medtronics is an outstanding company

In the good their products bring to the world, in their employee and customer focus. It's a company in which the employees are truly dedicated to the corporate mission.

[Thor_MN]

6. The company is named Medtronic. I don't know why people always say Medtronics, but they do.

You are very correct in saying that they are an outstanding company. I spent 6 years working there as a contractor and but for the greed of the contracting company would be an employee now.

[notadmblnd]

3. interesting.

[Thor_MN]

5. Can't do anything except from within inches of the device

You can't get any info from the device except at short range. There could be a possibility of being able to send commands from a longer distance with a higher powered radio signal, but there are other aspects not reported on that serve to prevent long range manipulation.

[daleo]

10. If a spy outfit rigged a cellphone

They might be able to get someone this way. Maybe a hearing aid, or a bug planted in a room. There may be lots of James Bond type possibilities.

[DavidMS]

18. There is a way..

Particularity powerful transmitter and antenna. Would lite any spectrum analyzer though and be very obvious.

See also:

http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_26.html#TAG993

http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_23.html#TAG867

[Solly Mack]

7. Is this a test?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

19. I wouldn't be surprised...

Not at all. I'm keepin' my lip zipped.

[guitar man]

8. oh......hmmmm

.....somehow I can't think of a single thing to say in response to this....:evilfrown:

[Sub Atomic]

20. Is it a coincidence that I watched the movie 'Hackers' last night?

:dilemma:

[lonestarnot]

21. Hoy boy!

[OKthatsIT]

22. Oh so THAT'S why Cheney is so recluse.

I thought it was the remote viewers he was hiding from.