Hacking Heart Devices

Cnet News has an interesting story about the implantable defibrillators that some heart patients wear (including Vice President Dick Cheney). Security researchers were able to reprogram the device to either shutdown or deliver very strong jolts that could be fatal.

The researchers said they had also been able to glean personal patient data by eavesdropping on signals from the tiny wireless radio that Medtronic, the device’s maker, had embedded in the implant as a way to let doctors monitor and adjust it without surgery.

The do note that it required thousand of dollars worth of equipment, and a resource intense effort. Also, they were only inches away from a device that was obviously not implanted in a human. “Resistance is Futile.”