Medical Devices Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks

Medical Daily:

An increasing number of patients are being fitted with medical implants like pacemakers and insulin pumps that are vulnerable to cyber-attacks, according to security researchers.

Expert Barnaby Jack, a researcher at security firm McAfee, discovered that the wireless links used in heart-regulating pacemakers, insulin-delivering pumps and cardiac rhythm-monitoring defibrillators that are used for interrogating and updating these devices left them opening exposed to hackers looking to gain remote control.

Jack told BBC that in just two weeks he found a way to scan for and compromise insulin pumps that communicate wirelessly. After overriding the pump’s safeguard, a hacker can threaten the lives of patients on the device by either turning off the device or by commanding wireless implants to deliver a hazardous dose of medicine to the patient.

"We can influence any pump within a 300ft range," Jack told the BBC. "We can make that pump dispense its entire 300 unit reservoir of insulin and we can do that without requiring its ID number."

More at the link.