Hackers Could Access Pacemakers From A Distance And Deliver Deadly Shocks

Loopholes could switch off pacemakers, rewrite their firmware and infect other pacemakers with deadly code.

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 10.17.2012 at 1:22 pm 4 Comments

Artificial Pacemaker Wikimedia Commons

Pacemakers could be infiltrated to deliver deadly shocks, according to a security expert. It wouldn’t be simple, but it offers the very James Bond-like possibility of anonymous digital assassination.

IOActive researcher Barnaby Jack demonstrated this capability at a security conference in Melbourne, according to Australia's SC Magazine. He used a laptop to send a series of 830-volt shocks to a remote pacemaker, and used some sort of unclear “secret function” the pacemakers possess, which could be used to activate all pacemakers and implantable defibrillators within a 30-foot radius. The devices would give up their serial numbers, which would allow the would-be assassin to breach their firmware and upload nefarious malware that could spread to other pacemakers like a virus. The devices could also give up personal data, and even supposedly secure data from the manufacturer.

“The worst case scenario that I can think of, which is 100 percent possible with these devices, would be to load a compromised firmware update onto a programmer and … the compromised programmer would then infect the next pacemaker or [defibrillator] and then each would subsequently infect all others in range,” he reportedly said.

It wouldn't be the first time a security expert showcased the vulnerability of these lifesaving devices. In one study four years ago, researchers from the University of Washington and University of Massachusetts figured out how to assume control of implanted pacemakers and obtain personal data. Other groups are working on ways to encrypt artificial organs and limbs.

Jack said he made the demonstration to alert device makers to insecurities.

[SC Magazine]

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4 Comments

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Robot

10/17/12 at 2:31 pm

I suppose the second part to this hack, would be to secretly contact the poor soul with a pace maker they have been hack and it they do not 'do as command', whatever that is, they will be messed with or gotten rid of.

Now that my imagination really wonders, imagine a bad department of some government decides to implant pace makers in healthy people\cell phone connection or wireless internet connection devices too. Then tells them to their face, if you do not comply with your orders, you will be messed with or gotten rid of, the next time you pass a cell phone tower or wireless internet.

It will not only be religious extremist\cults or nuts we'll be afraid of in the future, it could basically be anyone.

Wow, scary world we’re arriving to. ....

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vt007

10/17/12 at 3:13 pm

GITS

---
(Type 0.72) = We are still just cleaver monkeys!

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ckemp1590

10/17/12 at 3:33 pm

There is a great, sort of scary TED talk that is all about this stuff- hacking the stuff that we wouldn't think is hackable.

The talk is by Avi Rubin and titled "All your devices can be hacked."

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Igot1forya

10/18/12 at 10:37 am

This is quit alarming. A lot of people have/need these devices. Never thought I'd have to check the firmware on my father's pacemaker!

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