Comments on: Scientists Develop a Way to Keep Your Pacemaker From Getting Hacked

By: email secure server

email secure server — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:56:49 +0000

Honestly I’ve never considered the possibility of a medical device being hacked. Very scary to think about.

By: James

James — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 07:40:44 +0000

Too many moving parts here. Why not require all implant commands and queries to have a PIN prefix that the patient can wear on a necklace or bracelet? Encryption is overkill..

By: Anti-kutkin

Anti-kutkin — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:30:21 +0000

@Kutkin, it’s obvious, it only jams the frequency that the pacemaker is tuned to.

By: Aleksandar Kuktin

Aleksandar Kuktin — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:20:29 +0000

Simple: RSA with 4096-bit keys.

Also, I don’t fully understand how do they expect this thing to work. If it’s a jammer, then it’s either illegal or will make usage of other wireless devices (like mobile phones) impossible. But, if it isn’t a jammer, then it must rely on encryption and message routing to work. Kind of like SSL does on the Internet. And they just said that pacemakers don’t do encryption.

Anything other is simply not going to work.
Not that grandma is going to understand all that…

By: Demian W

Demian W — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:32:51 +0000

I think that this story illustrates a key weakness to any electrical augmentation that humans may adopt in the future. Today we experience the same phenomenon if we were to be assualted with a tazer. It overloads our electrical signals. Increasing our integration with mechanical devices increases our vulnerability to wireless commands either taking control of our devices or causing us physical harm. This is a very fascinating concept albeit not pressingly relevant in today’s society as hackers are much more interested in someones bank account than they are in our medical implants. Yet I see us on the cusp as prosthetics become more advanced that we could be could be working to prevent someone from hacking someone’s limbs and causing them to act against the the will of the owner. How can we create a more secure dialogue between wireless devices?

By: nodumby

nodumby — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:14:05 +0000

well now that its been published on and internet forum some criminal type is bound to try to hack them to commit murder, that is another sad and scary fact.

By: Pippa

Pippa — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 19:19:00 +0000

3 years ago the same people come up with a potential but not actual problem. They now come up with a device to overcome this theoretical problem. Potentially they could make a lot of money with this invention. It is indeed scary. A good business plan, maybe.

By: fintin

fintin — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 02:34:04 +0000

That’s a really scary fact.