Heart Patients using pacemakers particularly of Abbott brand will have to visit their doctors for a software update to keep safe their pacemakers from vulnerabilities and tampering through the internet.
Smart Pacemakers with accessibility to mobile devices and other online systems are potentially vulnerable to online tampering. The attacker could possibly change pacemakers programmed settings, change the beats and rhythm of a device, drain device battery life.
The Food and Drug Administrator (FDA) has asked Abbott to release a patch for the vulnerabilities.
One of the official from FDA said “The FDA has reviewed information concerning potential cyber security vulnerabilities associated with St. Jude Medical’s RF-enabled implantable cardiac pacemakers and has confirmed that these vulnerabilities, if exploited, could allow an unauthorized user (i.e. someone other than the patient’s physician) to access a patient’s device using commercially available equipment,” He further added “This access could be used to modify programming commands to the implanted pacemaker, which could result in patient harm from rapid battery depletion or administration of inappropriate pacing,”
According to the FDA total of 465,000 pacemakers in the US are affected -- although it is unknown about the effect it had outside the United States.
There have been no reports of compromised pacemakers, but the threat is huge which has to be taken very seriously as it can be life threatening.
Recently Abbott sent a letter to doctors about the new update - a separate software need to be installed in a device which will work on radio frequency and devices which will try to connect with Merlin website has to get authenticated via Merlin@home transmitter, making the device more safe than the past.
Smart Pacemakers with accessibility to mobile devices and other online systems are potentially vulnerable to online tampering. The attacker could possibly change pacemakers programmed settings, change the beats and rhythm of a device, drain device battery life.
The Food and Drug Administrator (FDA) has asked Abbott to release a patch for the vulnerabilities.
One of the official from FDA said “The FDA has reviewed information concerning potential cyber security vulnerabilities associated with St. Jude Medical’s RF-enabled implantable cardiac pacemakers and has confirmed that these vulnerabilities, if exploited, could allow an unauthorized user (i.e. someone other than the patient’s physician) to access a patient’s device using commercially available equipment,” He further added “This access could be used to modify programming commands to the implanted pacemaker, which could result in patient harm from rapid battery depletion or administration of inappropriate pacing,”
According to the FDA total of 465,000 pacemakers in the US are affected -- although it is unknown about the effect it had outside the United States.
There have been no reports of compromised pacemakers, but the threat is huge which has to be taken very seriously as it can be life threatening.
Recently Abbott sent a letter to doctors about the new update - a separate software need to be installed in a device which will work on radio frequency and devices which will try to connect with Merlin website has to get authenticated via Merlin@home transmitter, making the device more safe than the past.