Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by chromas on Saturday July 11 2020, @01:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the tsk-tsk-tsk dept.

Hacking Ventilators With DIY Dongles From Poland:

As COVID-19 surges, hospitals and independent biomedical technicians have turned to a global grey-market for hardware and software to circumvent manufacturer repair locks and keep life-saving ventilators running.

The dongle is handmade, little more than a circuit board encased in plastic with two connectors. One side goes to a ventilator’s patient monitor, another goes to the breath delivery unit. A third cable connects to a computer.

This little dongle—shipped to him by a hacker in Poland—has helped William repair at least 70 broken Puritan Bennett 840 ventilators that he’s bought on eBay and from other secondhand websites. He has sold these refurbished ventilators to hospitals and governments throughout the United States, to help them handle an influx of COVID-19 patients. Motherboard agreed to speak to William anonymously because he was not authorized by his company to talk to the media, but Motherboard verified the specifics of his story with photos and other biomedical technicians.

William is essentially Frankensteining together two broken machines to make one functioning machine. Some of the most common repairs he does on the PB840, made by a company called Medtronic, is replacing broken monitors with new ones. The issue is that, like so many other electronics, medical equipment, including ventilators, increasingly has software that prevents “unauthorized” people from repairing or refurbishing broken devices, and Medtronic will not help him fix them.

[...] Delays in getting equipment running put patients at risk. In the meantime, biomedical technicians will continue to try to make-do with what they can. “If someone has a ventilator and the technology to [update the software], more power to them,” Mackeil said. “Some might say you’re violating copyright, but if you own the machine, who’s to say they couldn’t or they shouldn’t?”

I understand that there is an ongoing debate on the "right to repair". However, many manufacturers increasingly find ways to ensure that "unauthorised" people cannot repair their devices. Where do you stand on this issue? During the ongoing pandemic, do medical device manufacturers have the right to prevent repair by third parties?

Previously (Medtronic):
(2020-04-14) Raspberry Pi to Power Ventilators as Demand for Boards Surges
(2020-03-31) Professional Ventilator Design "Open Sourced" Today by Medtronic
(2019-11-18) US-CERT Warns of Remotely Exploitable Bugs in Medical Devices
(2018-10-17) Medtronic Locks Out Vulnerable Pacemaker Programmer Kit
(2018-08-15) Hack Causes Pacemakers to Deliver Life-Threatening Shocks
(2014-10-28) US Security Agencies Look at Medical Device Security

Previously (right to repair):
(2020-07-06) Fixers Know What "Repairable" Means--Now There's a Standard for It
(2020-04-21) 'Right to Repair' Taken Up by the ACCC in Farmers' Fight to Fix Their Own Tractors
(2020-03-13) Europe Wants a 'Right to Repair' Smartphones and Gadgets
(2020-01-09) Popularity of Older Tractors Boosted by Avoidance of DRM
(2019-06-21) Hackers, Farmers, and Doctors Unite! Support for Right to Repair Laws Slowly Grows
(2019-04-30) Reeducating Legislators on the Right to Repair
(2019-02-22) Right to Repair Legislation Is Officially Being Considered In Canada
(2018-10-13) 45 Out of 50 Electronics Companies Illegally Void Warranties After Independent Repair, Sting Reveals
(2018-09-21) John Deere Just Swindled Farmers Out of Their Right to Repair
(2018-04-17) Apple Sued an Independent iPhone Repair Shop Owner and Lost
(2018-03-08) The Right to Repair Battle Has Come to California
(2018-02-02) Tractor Hacking: The Farmers Breaking Big Tech's Repair Monopoly
(2018-01-28) Washington State Bill Would Make Hard-to-Repair Electronics Illegal
(2017-05-25) Apple, Verizon Join Forces to Lobby Against New York's 'Right to Repair' Law
(2017-03-08) Right to Repair


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Troll) by c0lo on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:11AM (11 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:11AM (#1019348) Journal

    ongoing debate on the "right to repair"

    There is no debate about it.

    Oh, but there is: the Shareholders vs. Stakeholders Debate [mit.edu]. Why do you hate capitalism [wikipedia.org]?

    Listen, I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm saying that in, the current culture of the society, the conflict will be resolved in the interest of shareholders, US has a legal precedent for that [litigationandtrial.com]

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   -1  
       Troll=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Troll' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:25AM (10 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:25AM (#1019359) Journal

    That may change in the near future. When the lack of a right to repair was only screwing over some farmers, and some tech-geeks, it was no big deal. When that same infringement on a person's natural right to repair his own property begins costing lives in hospitals? Public sentiment may bit those shareholders in the ass. I'm a fan of torches and pitchforks. I say "Bring them on!" Burn a few mansions, hang a few shareholders, put a few of the filthy rich into gibbets, and set some examples. Then, write some sensible laws which all the surviving shareholders will readily agree to.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by c0lo on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:01AM (7 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:01AM (#1019375) Journal

      hang a few shareholders

      Careful, you may end of committing suicide if you have retirement money managed by a pension fund (grin. Only serious: don't hate the players, hate the game)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @07:29AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @07:29AM (#1019411)

        Idiot mods who don't realize that they themselves may be shareholders in public companies (which they don't approve of) if they have funds in a pension fund [wikipedia.org].
        May not even know that pension investment funds are very common [wikipedia.org], especially in countries that are not US.

        Hey, idiot, if you what a flamebait example, here's one: maybe you don't even realize there are countries other than US.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:25PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:25PM (#1019663)

          Maybe we should start an Ethics Fund which shorts the most egregiously moral violating companies. It can be like buying carbon credits - it offsets any bad effects you feel by owning said companies in your 401k pension fund.

      • (Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:11AM (4 children)

        by Opportunist (5545) on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:11AM (#1019435)

        I hate the ones playing with my money. Or rather, playing with some money and expect me to bail them out when they lost in the casino. Screw them. Preferable with a donkey dildo.

        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:40AM (2 children)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:40AM (#1019443) Journal

          I hate the ones playing with my money.

          If you receive your salary in a bank account you already allow others to play with your money [wikipedia.org]. And they do play a losing-game-guaranteed for you.

          I said it in other comment: don't hate the player, hate the game.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday July 11 2020, @10:52AM (1 child)

            by Opportunist (5545) on Saturday July 11 2020, @10:52AM (#1019454)

            It's easier to kill the player than the game, and if nobody is playing anymore, the game leaves as well.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @11:21AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @11:21AM (#1019463)

              Quite a jump you're making from hate to kill.
              Besides, some billion people are players in the game, like anyone receiving their wages in bank account; do you intend to kill them all?

        • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:18PM

          by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:18PM (#1019938) Homepage Journal

          You realize, or course, that money is a fiction that works only because enough people believe in it?

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by legont on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:07AM (1 child)

      by legont (4179) on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:07AM (#1019376)

      Yes, indeed. Two other examples include:
      - intentionally limiting the life expectancy of the device by inserting a predictably weak part such as a plastic one with known disintegration time
      - locking down features in hope to sell them later

      Both are wasting the resources and as such killing the life on the planet.

      --
      "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:28PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @09:28PM (#1019664)

        I've heard it said of medical devices that you don't buy the device, you buy an upgrade path.