[nflug] OT: Defcon presenter turns off pacemaker remotely

Erek Dyskant erek at blumenthals.com
Sat Aug 9 11:08:11 EDT 2008


Howdy All,
	As I know there are a few folks in the medical device industry on the
list, I thought the nflugers might find this article interesting.
	I think that as ubiquitous computing becomes more prevalent, we'll see
more examples of security concerns in noncomputer configurable devices:
cars, medical implants, aircraft, industrial control.

Quoted:

The Defcon conference is the wild and woolly version of Black Hat for
the unwashed masses of hackers. It always has its share of unusual
hacks. The oddest so far is a collaborative academic effort where
medical device security researchers have figured out how to turn off
someone’s pacemaker via remote control. They previously disclosed the
paper at a conference in May. But the larger point of the vulnerability
of all wirelessly-controlled medical devices remains a hot topic here at
the show in Las Vegas.

Let’s not have a collective heart attack, at least not yet. The people
on the right side of the security fence are the ones who have figured
this out so far. But this has very serious implications for the 2.6
million people who had pacemakers installed from 1990 to 2002 (the stats
available from the researchers). It also presents product liability
problems for the five companies that make pace makers.

...

http://venturebeat.com/2008/08/08/defcon-excuse-me-while-i-turn-off-your-pacemaker/





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