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Pacemakers could be 'vulnerable to deadly cyber attack'

People with pacemakers could be vulnerable to a deadly new form of 'cyber attack', scientists have warned.
They say the wireless signals used by doctors to monitor and adjust medical implants could be hijacked by malicious computer hackers - and used to give patients potentially lethal electric shocks.
Researchers are so concerned at the risks they have devised a cloaking gadget that can protect patients from interference.
Medical implants are increasingly being fitted with wireless technology that allows doctors to check the machines are working properly.
The technology is used in pacemakers - which ensure hearts beat correctly, drug pumps, swallowable cameras, neural stimulators and prosthetics.
Earlier this year, a team of American scientists showed how to use a radio to interfere with a pacemaker - reprogramming it to give potentially fatal jolts of electricity or to shut down.
Although there has never been a case of deliberate pacemaker interference, the experiment raised concerns that millions of people could be vulnerable.
At the time the researchers called on the medical devices industry to take more care over the design of implants.
Now Dr Tamara Denning, a computer scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, has devised a cloaking device that can block potential attackers.
The gadget - which could eventually be worn like a wristwatch - is resistant to electronic attack and tells the pacemaker to ignore any unexpected wireless instructions.
When doctors need to talk to a pacemaker,they can simply remove the cloaker, New Scientist magazine reports.
The device has yet to be tested, but has been shown to work in computer simulations.
Although irresponsible attacks on pacemakers may seem unlikely, Dr Denning points out that in 2007 hackers posted flashing images to the Epilepsy Foundation's website - apparently with the aim of triggering attacks in people visiting the site.
'We wanted to draw attention not to a prevalent threat, but to a possible future one,' she said.
However, Dr William Maisel of Harvard University, who led the pacemaker hacking experiment earlier this year, said the cloaker was unrealistic.
In an emergency, a cloaker could be hidden in clothing and be hard for doctors to find.
'You're asking hundreds of thousands or millions of people to wear something every day for a theoretical risk,' he said.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...er-attack.html

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