Hackers control pacemakers

VentureBeat is a website dealing with tech and finance news. They recently posted an article raising some concerns about the safety and security of some medical devices.

They stated in the article that a team of academics and tech security professionals presenting at Defcon, the world’s largest hacker convention, have “figured out how to turn off someone’s pacemaker via remote control.”

According to the report, one brand of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) made by Medtronics has a built-in test mechanism which turns out to be a bug that can be exploited by hackers.

The hackers used a software radio and less than $1,000 worth of other electronics to build a system that mimicked the ICD’s control mechanism. This enabled them to “eavesdrop on private data such as the identity of the patient, the doctor, the diagnosis, and the pacemaker instructions.”

It also gave them the ability to control the pacemaker and allowed them to be able to put the device in test mode, drain the battery or turn off therapies of the device.

I guess the bottom line is that no electronic device is completely safe. If one person creates something, another person will figure out how to destroy it.