St. Jude Medical Patches Cardiac Machine's Cybersecurity Flaw Article Review

1.St. Jude Medical created a software patch at the U.S. FDA’s warning that their Merlin@home Transmitter that communicates with cardiac devices could be hacked

2.The transmitter wirelessly sends data on the patient with the implanted cardiac device (like a pacemaker)to a physician over their Merlin.net patient care portal

3.A hacker has the capability without this patch to modify the commands in that implanted device, administer unnecessary pacing or shocks and rapidly deplete the battery 

4.The FDA says that “the health benefits to patients from continued use of the device [Merlin@home Transmitter] outweigh the cybersecurity risks”

Summary:

I thought it was interesting to find that now the FDA is getting involved in cybersecurity issues because of the ramifications of hacking medical devices. We will definitely be seeing more of these software patches released in the following months. Hackers are generally financially motivated and wouldn’t have an interest in hacking a medical device unless, as the article says, it was like a Ransomware attack where the attacker could send a fatal amount of electricity (shock) through the patient’s body without ever touching them.

Bibliography:

Mello, John P., Jr. "St. Jude Medical Patches Cardiac Machine's Cybersecurity Flaw."St. Jude Medical Patches Cardiac Machine's Cybersecurity Flaw. Tech News World, 11 Jan. 2017. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.