A US researcher is calling for legislation to enforce tighter security on implanted cardiac devices after he hacked one wirelessly to produce a potentially fatal electric shock.
The scenario may sound like something out of a detective novel or far-fetched thriller movie script but the danger is real and should be taken seriously, says Kevin Fu, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts, who specialises in the security of RFID systems.
[…]
Doctors can access modern pacemakers and defibrillators over the Internet via a short-range wireless link similar to those used in RFID devices. The system allows them to monitor patients remotely and install software updates.This means a hacker could access confidential medical information as well as reprogram the devices, Fu says.
[…]
The hacking device could be built into something the size of a cellphone and infect IMDs with malware randomly as the killer walked down the street.
Will this be a way for ‘death panels’ to get rid of expensive heart patients? Jolt ’em, kill ’em, remove the hack so they can’t be tracked.
0
Support the Blog — Buy This Book!
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
Put this ad on your blog!
Syndicate
Subscribe to Main Blog feed here:
Subscribe to Comments too (below):
Junk Email Filter
3 current threads on hacking into computer systems?
Random or planned?
Planned for a purpose or no purpose?
So many issues, so little time.
Do Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid wear a pacemaker?
No reason… not related… just wondering???
Oh Great!! Now you’ve given people ideas for what to do for fun if they’re bored some day.
@2: No, but Cheney does.
Goodbye, Dick.
The nexgen ethernet connector should be in the shape of a heart. The rectangular RJ-45 is so First Decade.
Can’t you screw up a pacemaker just by standing near a microwave?
So what happens when they get a BSOD during a software update?
Exactly what I’m thinking, Chuck.
What is worse, you could set it up to shock at a certain time and go establish your alibi, that is if you are smart enough to get rid of the hacking device.
Soon appearing, in the App Store.
Just for perspective, the RFID tags used here would be the HF variety because they’re under the skin…they work out to a couple inches, max. And no, you can’t just build a bigger antenna to get more range, they’re more like transformers than RF links.
So if you want to hack one, you have to get real close.
Not for nothing, but wasn’t this sort of thing declassified in the 70’s
IIRC, this could be done to someone without a pacemaker as well.
We all run on electromagnetic impulses.
Once the resonant frequency used to activate the heart muscle is known, it should be extremely simple to build a short range transmitter to disrupt the signal.
(or cause the brain to produce neurotransmitters that are how shall we say, “adverse” to the normal operation of the heart)
I imagine it would take little effort to retune the magnetron in a microwave oven to do this.
*shrug*
-s
uses to be
#1 boobo said:
I agree with the sentemant..
I have noticed this trend over the past several weeks.
If i didn’t know better, i’d say we are being sensitized to expect a cyber/hack attack very soon. esp with all the sudden (and extremely lame) terror plots that have been foiled here in NYC and elsewhere the past 3 weeks..
kinda like false flag 101 if you ask me..
-also my g/f noted that she has seen 3 news stories in the past week on off-channel news networks indicating not the possibility, but an outright “guarantee” of a nuke attack on a major city in the U.S. within the next 5 years. -lovely.
Given that Rahmmi stated “never let a good crisis go to waste” (well tbh, i’m sure that’s any administrations motto)
-and, that this admin needs a serous distraction to save face on the absurd [and unpopular/failing] policies it is pursuing…i think it’s a safe bet that something big is in the works between now and say, the end of November at the latest to allow *ahem* someone to save the day and rekindle that hero worship that is um, waining.
add to that, have you been watching the debacle unfolding in Hardin Montana? –concerning the huge (and 2yrs empty) brandy new $ 27milprison facility that just got “activated” by a prvt shell corp called American Police Force?
http://kulr8.com/news/local/59284497.html
http://google.com/search?q=American+Police+Force&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
It’s starting to pan out to be a a shell corp of Blackwater, manned by Foreign Mercs… it’s emblem is the Serbian Coat of arms.. -and the Corp CEO is a 14x felon with 1mil plus in civil suits against him to his credit..
Just the kind of guy you want running your um, Security. (if your a Dictator, perhaps)
just hit the news wires a little while ago..
-Me thinks remote controlled heart attacks are the least of our worries…tbh.
-s
As expensive as the damn things are. You’d think these remote programmable pacemakers would have a complicated password protection system. Something like what flashable EProms had, before allowing a new code inside. And a unique password per unit. Not just a generic for all of them. Didn’t the FDA have to sign off on these things? Are they just rubber stamping stuff, without any head scratchin over its security?
Killing off pacemakers owners would be a waste. A better idea would to do what pro hackers do. Turn PCs into zombies? Turn pacemaker owners into zombies. And time now, there will be a Tv episode that has someone robbing a bank because a guy on a cell phone is controlling his heart. Actually, the idea isn’t all that different from the movie “Crank”. So I doubt they’ll do that again as a movie. But Tv isn’t too proud to be unoriginal.
Hmm. Interesting, but a link to plans for a themonuclear bomb might garner more hits. Geez!
ahhhh ZAP Comix …. brings back memories — original printings bringing ~$15,000 — The Checkered Demon was the best.
#16 Definitely a Crumb classic! Sa shame they don’t have something similar to the underground comics of the 60’s and 70’s now. I guess there’s no chance of that, hallucenogenic drugs aren’t as popular as they used to be.
# 15 ±:
“The Checkered Demon was the best.”
Ah yup. “Where’s my free tumbler?”
Now _that_ could get a person’s heart going!