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Medical implant hacking… reminds me of X-Files

Manufacturers have started adding wireless capabilities to many implantable medical devices, including pacemakers and cardioverter defibrillators. This allows doctors to access vital information and send commands to these devices quickly, but security researchers have raised concerns that it could also make them vulnerable to attack.

A couple guys from the local University of Washington…

…showed how to glean personal information from such a device, how to drain its batteries remotely, and how to make it malfunction in dangerous ways.

source

This kinda reminds me of an X-Files episode I saw where Skinner, the FBI agent in charge of Mulder and Skully, was infected with some form of remote controllable nanotechnology that could induce cardiac arrest on a whim. It was used in several episodes to force the FBI agent to do things against his will.

"Hacking up a lung" has new meaning

'Hacking up a lung' has new meaning

I suppose the same could be done for real if one were able to hack a pacemaker and remotely turn off and on the pulse controller. Even if “remotely” was only from a range of a few feet, it would still be terrifying to say the least.

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