Many medical devices come equipped with wireless communication systems these days, allowing doctors to customize their operations or to see their patents’ information. But fitting pacemakers or implanted defibrillators with WiFi also opens the door to hackers‘ attacks. Hackers could potentially steal personal information, remotely drain batteries, or cause a dangerous malfunction, so researchers are working on ways to block them. The approach relies on using ultrasound waves to determine the exact distance between a medical device and the wireless reader attempting to communicate with it [Technology Review]. The plan is to only allow access to a medical device from wireless reading devices within 10 feet, and only then after a series of authentication steps. However, in the event of an emergency, the medical device would grant access to anyone within a few inches of the device. In other words, to anyone close enough to assist.
The research team also has to consider how much power their security measures will drain from the devices, which is a not-so-trivial point for a battery-operated pacemaker. But Claude Castelluccia, who was involved with designing the security system, said that because the device won’t respond to requests that come from outside the predetermined distance, it would also be harder for an attacker to wear down the battery by forcing it to process one request after another [Technology Review]. To test their system, researchers recently implanted a medical device in the stomach of a cow, and they’re currently shopping their patented technology to potential developers.
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Image: flickr / library_mistress
November 11th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
What awful soul would purposely drain the power from a pacemaker?!
November 11th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
The same ones that would fly airlines into buildings Andrew
November 11th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Oh, Cheney. Does he wear a Darth Vader costume when he does it?
November 12th, 2009 at 3:12 am
Good one Henry.
I doubt that there is any real danger of a coordinated attack by Iraqi terrorists on the pacemakers of american people. But I suppose it is comforting to have a predefined image of a bad person.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:34 am
Wow. The scope of human nature never ceases to amaze me; hacking pacemakers to malfunction? Mann.! C’mon.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:14 am
pf.
November 12th, 2009 at 5:02 am
In the future we’ll all have pacemakers which can be remotely disabled by the government if we don’t obey.
November 12th, 2009 at 7:13 am
To all those that are saying how aweful it is that someone would attack a pacemaker:
Nobody is suggesting anybody would do it, or has done it.
But I think we all know that some people out there would.
We should be grateful that the doctors thought of it before the attackers did.
:-)
November 12th, 2009 at 8:08 am
This is crap. The story should replace murder with hacker. Hackers have nothing to do with this. Unreal. Did Obama call a press conference and tell America that the next great threat to our country is “hackers” running around with black boxes that disable pace makers? How do you know if someone even has a pace maker? Don’t microwaves interfere with pace makers? That has been known for some time.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:45 am
If we can’t get Harkonnen heart plugs, we can assassinate via battery DoS.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Wow that makes pretty good sense to me dude!
RT
http://www.ultimate-privacy.cz.tc
November 12th, 2009 at 11:02 am
I’d suggest the bigger risk for the US here is remote deactivation due to insurance issues. Like when they decide your heart problem was a condition ‘pre-existing’ compared to your pacemaker and decides to cut the chance they’ll have to spend time to fight or deny a valid claim for the maintnence, replacement or verification of the thing in the future by leaving you nice and dead.
Which they can charge you again for.
November 14th, 2009 at 2:06 am
Dave in Calif…….many thanks for showing you at least care for those that have pacemakers. My husband will have one inserted next Friday. Thanks also to Brett for posting the article.
November 15th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Chardy people are suggesting it and by saying “But I think we all know that some people out there would.” YOU are also suggesting that people would do it LOL
December 6th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Interesting, who made your shirt? Van Heusen? Versacci? Nope… Faraday!
December 8th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
pwn123 wants to connect to your Pacemaker. CANCEL or ALLOW?
December 9th, 2009 at 5:00 am
Great, now humans will get heart worms too……and heart trojans, and heart spyware…
December 13th, 2009 at 8:00 am
pwn123 wants to connect to your Pacemaker. CANCEL or ALLOW?
December 17th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
is it good to use pacemakers???i am doing a project on it.
December 30th, 2009 at 8:41 am
I could only imagine the only people who would try this one would be serial killers and murderers.