Now this is really Life hacking ! - Hacking Implanted Devices

This is really Life hacking - Hacking Implanted Devices

Now this defines Life hacking !

A common new technology for monitoring defibrillators is vulnerable to hacking and even to reprogramming that could stop the devices from delivering a lifesaving shock as per AP reports.

A Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman acknowledged a hacker could use specialized software and a small antenna to intercept transmissions from a defibrillator.

Are you saying Oh My Goodness ?

Wait till you hear this…

“There will be more implanted devices and more wireless capabilities and transmissions over greater distances,” said Dr. William Maisel, one of the study’s authors and a Harvard-affiliated director of the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

The chief defibrillator makers are Medtronic Inc., Boston Scientific Corp. and St. Jude Medical Inc. It was Medtronic’s Maximo defibrillator that Maisel’s team studied.

Medtronic spokesman Rob Clark said the risk of any “deliberate, malicious or unauthorized manipulation of a device is extremely low.” Future versions capable of transmitting signals as far as 30 feet from a patient will incorporate stronger security, he said.

What do you say to that ?

Bruce Lindsay, an electrophysiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and president of the Heart Rhythm Society, said defibrillator transmissions are “not designed to withstand terrorist attacks.”

Is this because in a terrorist attack you are going to die anyways
Read AP report - Researchers hack defibrillators