Insulin pumps are designed to be convenient and easy to use, but those features may make them more vulnerable to a hacker, a new report says.
Hacking Healthcare: Are insulin pumps more susceptible to attack?
Cybersecurity
Fear and hacking in Las Vegas – ground rules for the uninitiated
Photo by Flickr user dustball
I’ve just barely arrived in Las Vegas at 8 p.m. local time and the weather app on my phone says it’s 100 degrees outside.
I’m less concerned about the stark contrast from the temperate mid-60-degree climes I’ve grown accustomed to and more wondering whether I should put my iPhone back in airplane mode for the duration of my visit – wireless and cellular signals are easy to hack.
Security report: Software-related recalls growing, FDA unprepared
Massachusetts researchers analyzing decades of FDA reports concluded that the agency’s safety protocols may not be enough to protect medical devices in the software age.
As more and more medical devices boast features allowing them to collect and wirelessly transmit patient information, the FDA’s existing systems for tracking safety concerns and spotting patterns may not be up to the task.
Device hacking: Federal agencies urge heightened review of device cybersecurity
A handful of government bodies are asking federal regulators to establish medical device software security protocols as part of the FDA’s regular review of medical devices.
The U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security joined the Information Security & Privacy Advisory Board of the National Institute of Standards & Technology in calling for heightened review of medical devices, citing security weaknesses that may leave them vulnerable to "malicious tampering."
The sad reality of what our younger generation is learning about pacemakers
A conversation I had last night:
ICU Nurse: "Did you see the video on the guy who hacked his pacemaker?"
Me: "Seriously?"
ICU Nurse: "Yeah, I think it was on Spike TV’s show "1000 Ways to Die."
The hack-able body: Are device makers doing enough to shield patients from hackers?
Karen Sandler was 31 years old, working at a non-profit organization providing free legal help to computer programmers, when she was diagnosed with an enlarged heart and informed that she’d need a machine to help keep her alive.
Her mother accompanied her the day a doctor recommended that Sandler undergo surgery to implant a medical device into her chest. He handed Sandler a pager-sized machine called a cardioverter defibrillator – a miniature, implantable equivalent of having EMTs follow her around all day with defibrillator paddles should her heart stop.
(page 2) The hack-able body
Hacker demonstrates insulin pump attack from 300 ft. away | MassDevice.com On Call
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — A modern insulin pump can be hacked from 300 feet away and told to deliver a lethal dose of insulin, a hacker and researcher for computer security giant McAfee proved.
Using a laptop and a custom-made antennae, Barnaby Jack’s software broke through the insulin pump’s security and altered its program to dump its contents, injected a potentially lethal dose of the hormone into a dummy pancreas used for demonstration purposes.
UPDATE: Could a medical device be used to cyberassassinate?
At least one Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) insulin pump has software vulnerabilities that could make it a target for malicious hacks and other models may also be at risk, according to software security giant McAfee.
The McAfee team developed code that allowed it to take over the insulin pump, altering its programming and even administering potentially lethal doses from as much as 300 feet away.
Medical device security: Should medical device software be open source?
Karen Sandler, the woman in charge of open-source software company GNOME, has been fighting to view the source code for her Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) EnTrust cardioverter since she received the implant in 2008.
