Half a million cardiac patients in the US were recommended by The Food And Drug Administration to get their pacemakers updated due to hacking fears. The security flaws that could assist hackers in reprogramming the devices to run the batteries down or mod
Half a million cardiac patients in the US were recommended by The Food And Drug Administration to get their pacemakers updated due to hacking fears. The security flaws that could assist hackers in reprogramming the devices to run the batteries down or modify the patient’s heartbeat, thereby putting half a million patients lives at risk.What is a Pacemaker? Pacemakers are small electrical battery operated devices surgically placed in the chest of patients to control their heartbeats by using low-energy electrical pulses to stimulate the heart to function normally. The pacemakers at risk are all manufactured by Health-Tech firm Abbott. The affected models are radio-frequency activated cardiac devices fitted to patients suffering from irregular heartbeats and those recovering from heart failure related issues.Researchers from Security firm White Scope on analysis of Pacemaker products from four vendors discovered that pacemaker programmers used readily available equipment costing between $15 to $3000 to intercept the devices and affect its operations. All the affected devices contain configurable computer systems vulnerable to cyber risks. The affected pacemakers require a firmware update. The patients with these pacemakers must consult their healthcare provider to update their firmware, a process which takes 3 minutes.
You may be interested in reading:How to use Internet of Things (IoT) Securely? An Insight from Global Cybersecurity Thought Leader!The update makes authorization mandatory for any external accessing device communicating with the pacemaker. It also includes data encryption, system fixes and the ability to disable network connectivity features. Pacemakers manufactured post-August 28, 2017, come with the update pre-installed. The FDA recall does not apply to Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators (ICD) and Cardiac resynchronization ICDs. In order, to strengthen protection against unauthorized access, the manufacturer Abbott is working with global regulators and independent security experts. The threat to the pacemakers could have potentially harmed heart patients implanted with them though there are no reported cases of compromised pacemakers as yet.
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