An article in yesterday’s Boston Globe discussed a recent research study that showed that implanted devices that regulate heartbeat and use wireless technology are vulnerable to attack by hackers. These devices, such as pacemakers and cardiac defibrillators, could be accessed and “told” to disturb the patient’s heart rhythm or to deliver a high voltage shock to the heart. Also accessible to the hacker could be the name and identification number of the patient. Dr. William H. Maisel, the senior author of the study report and the director of the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, did say that the hacker would have to have “some technical expertise”. He also emphasized that patients with these implanted devices should not be concerned as there has never been a reported episode of this type of attack. The study does propose several fixes that could help prevent a hacker attack. Tadayoshi Kohno, a computer scientist from the University of Washington who also worked on the study, warned that this type of hack attack could become more of a problem as implanted devices use longer-range wireless technologies and move beyond the heart to treat diabetes, chronic pain, and other medical problems.

The study will be presented at a symposium on computer security in May.

Submitted by: Alice McCreary, Reference Librarian
on March 13, 2008 - 12:03 pm

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