Another thing to worry about - Medical Hacking that can kill [View all]

[packman]

Read an article that rang my "WHAT THE HELL" bell about NSA wanting to monitor heart pacemakers and other medical devices. Then, as I read on, it made sense..


"...a security researcher ..., in April demonstrated a system that could scan for and compromise insulin pumps that communicate wirelessly. With a push of a button on his laptop, he could have any pump within 300 feet dump its entire contents, without even needing to know the device identification numbers. At a different conference, Jack showed how he’d reverse-engineered a pacemaker and could deliver an 830-volt shock to a person’s device from 50 feet away – which he likened to an “anonymous assassination.”

And--

"In hospitals around the country there has been a dangerous rise of malware infections in computerized equipment. Many of these systems are running very old versions of Windows that are susceptible to viruses from years ago. Some manufacturers will not allow their equipment to be modified, even with security updates, partially due to regulatory restrictions"

Great, medical terrorism - if you have ANY type of medical device - pacemaker, pump, monitor - you can be hacked and rather easily too.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/singularity/2012/12/06/yes-you-can-hack-a-pacemaker-and-other-medical-devices-too/#675ff66513e0