Cyber-security threat: 745,000 pacemakers could be hacked

Heart patients in US and abroad risk attack
due to security flaw

One-Minute Read

About 465,000 of the pacemakers are implanted in US patients and
another 280,000 are used worldwide, the BBC said.

Abbott has yet to comment on whether any UK patients are at
risk. Thousands of the devices are believed to be in Australia and
the Therapeutic Goods Administration is trying “to determine what,
if any, action is required”, Australia’s ABC News reports. 

Thousands of Australians are believed to
have #pacemakers that have been recalled in the US https://t.co/WLmeyZIvdA #health pic.twitter.com/aHzCnKDfNg

— ABC News (@abcnews) August 31, 2017

Health Canada says it reviewed the problem with Abbott and the
risks of a cyberattack were being “adequately mitigated”, SC magazine reports. 

Theoretically, the flaw could allow hackers to control the
devices to pace too quickly or run down batteries, although Abbott
said it wasn’t aware of that ever happening and US Homeland
Security told the BBC that an attacker would need “high skill” to
exploit the vulnerabilities.

Abbott’s “recall” won’t see the pacemakers removed. Instead,
patients are advised to ask doctors about a firmware update which
takes about three minute. The pacemakers can receive a revised code
by being placed close to a radio wave-emitting wand in a process
that lasts about three minutes, the BBC says. 

St Jude recalled some of its 400,000 implanted heart devices
last October due to risk of premature battery depletion, which was
linked to two deaths in Europe, Reuters says. 

Wired magazine reported earlier this year that medical devices
were “broadly vulnerable” to attack.

“In a December investigation of new generation implantable
cardiac defibrillators, British and Belgian researchers found
security flaws in the proprietary communication protocols of 10
ICDs currently on the market,” the magazine said.