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Heart Devices could be Hacked, say Researchers

Hundreds of thousands of patients in the United States who have pacemakers implanted in their hearts might have a new danger to worry about, and it has nothing to do with the malfunctioning of their device. The new risk, as reported in the New York Times, comes from the potential for hacking of the pacemaker. It might seem like the plot of a sci-fi thriller, but although experts say there is no cause for concern, you have to wonder how much of a security risk this could pose.

The risk was proved by a group of computer security researchers who have claimed that they were able to gain access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker. They were able to hack so successfully that they were able to program the pacemaker to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that could have been fatal if the test was being conducted on a human being.

Apparently, the researchers were able to access the signal from the wireless radio that is placed inside the Medtronic devices. This wireless radio lets doctors monitor the progress of the pacemaker in their patients without the need for surgery. As evident from this experiment, technology is not always foolproof and is not always used for the same reason it was intended for. In other words, regardless of the claim that this isn’t a serious risk, you can’t help but wonder, what such technology could do if it got into the wrong hands?

Experts say that the hacking experiment required $30,000 worth of sophisticated lab equipment and a team of specialists from the University of Washington and University of Massachusetts to succeed. Such specialized experiments are simply not possible for lay people to undertake. Or are they?

Increased risk could come from the fact that many of these pacemaker and defibrillator combo devices have begun to be connected to the internet, so doctors can monitor the state of their patient’s heart remotely without the need for the patient arriving at the clinic. It’s just one more example of the advances in medical technology, and like all advances has the potential to be misused.

After all, when computers first caught on, nobody had heard of hackers and the destruction they could wreak. Now, we all know enough to protect our systems from the threat of hackers, who constantly devise ever more ingenious ways to get to our data. What’s to guarantee that this sort of hacking will not carry over to the defibrillator device too?

Experts claim that in the millions of such devices that have been implanted worldwide there has never been a single instance of any security breach. Just because something has never happened in the past, is no guarantee that it will never happen in the future. For years, we believed that this country was safe from terror, and that we had an invisible wall that protected us. We all know what happened to that theory.

There might be no need for panic right now, but there is definitely cause for concern when you take into account how many people are walking around with pacemakers fitted into their hearts.

If you have been injured by a dangerous medical device, you need the help of an experienced team of personal injury attorneys in California. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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One response to “Heart Devices could be Hacked, say Researchers”

1. Orange County Computer Lawyer Blog » Blog Archive » Taking Hacking to Heart writes:
   

   [...] to a blog post on The Reeves Law Group Blog, we may now have to worry about hackers cracking pacemakers.  Apparently, certain Medtronic [...]

   @ March 13th, 2008 at 14:18