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Does Your Pacemaker Need A Firewall? Pacemaker Hacking!
3-18-08
About three million people worldwide have pacemakers implanted, with about
600,000 more joining their ranks annually. In spite of the widespread use of
these heart-regulating devices and their efficacy in reducing cardiac failure,
they've been the subject of much disturbing news. We've witnessed a constant
barrage of safety warnings and manufacturing glitches over the years,
culminating in the 2005 recall of over 100,000 defibrillating pacemakers from
one company alone, Guidant Corporation -- not to mention the frequent buzz about
pacemakers being vulnerable to magnetic fields, scanning devices, and so on. But
now there's a new twist on the pacemaker saga -- one that might make Agatha
Christie want to start writing again.
A team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, the University of
Massachusetts, and the University of Washington recently discovered that one of
the most common forms of pacemakers, the wireless implantable cardiac
defribillator (ICD), can be remotely hacked. ICDs have computers built into them
in order to monitor the patient's heartbeat, and these computers store
confidential medical and patient information. The computer signals the device to
deliver a little shock that regulates the heart beat when it slows down or
becomes irregular, while a built-in wireless radio sends information to medical
practitioners so that they can make modifications remotely, without surgery.
Apparently, the signals emanating from the ICD devices can be intercepted, and
the confidential patient information stolen. But even worse, ICDs can be made to
deliver harmful shocks. The research team stated, "Our investigation shows that
an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (1) is potentially susceptible to
malicious attacks that violate the privacy of patient information and medical
telemetry, and (2) may experience malicious alteration to the integrity of
information or state, including patient data and therapy settings for when and
how shocks are administered."
In other words, anyone with nasty intent who knows what he's doing can,
conceivably, manipulate the settings on another person's pacemaker -- including
a pacemaker implanted in a public figure, for example -- and deliver a
potentially lethal jolt. (I'd like to see Hercule Poirot solve that murder.) But
don't panic; we're not living in The Matrix just yet. The experiments were
conducted in a lab setting, with the disrupting signal placed just a few inches
away from the ICD, so long-distance manipulation isn't a worry…today.