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Abbott Addresses Life-Threatening Flaw in a Half-Million Pacemakers

posted by takyon on Monday May 07 2018, @09:11PM   
from the pacehacker dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

About 350,000 implantable defilibrators are up for a firmware update, to address potentially life-threatening vulnerabilities.

Abbott (formerly St. Jude Medical) has released another upgrade to the firmware installed on certain implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) devices. The update will strengthen the devices' protection against unauthorized access, as the provider said in a statement on its website: "It is intended to prevent anyone other than your doctor from changing your device settings."

The patch is part a planned series of updates that began with pacemakers, programmers and remote monitoring systems in 2017, following 2016 claims by researchers that the then-St. Jude's cardiac implant ecosystem was rife with cybersecurity flaws that could result in "catastrophic results."

Source: https://threatpost.com/abbott-addresses-life-threatening-flaw-in-a-half-million-pacemakers/131709/

Related: A Doctor Trying to Save Medical Devices from Hackers
Security Researcher Hacks Her Own Pacemaker
Updated: University of Michigan Says Flaws That MedSec Reported Aren't That Serious
Fatal Flaws in Ten Pacemakers Make for Denial of Life Attacks
After Lawsuits and Denial, Pacemaker Vendor Finally Admits its Product is Hackable
8,000 Vulnerabilities Found in Software to Manage Cardiac Devices
465,000 US Patients Told That Their Pacemaker Needs a Firmware Upgrade

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Original Submission

• Did they learn from Microsoft ? Did they learn from Microsoft ? (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday May 07 2018, @09:35PM (1 child)

  by bob_super (1357) on Monday May 07 2018, @09:35PM (#676799)

  I'm not sure I'd line up to be the first to get an update.

  • Re:Did they learn from Microsoft ? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @05:50AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @05:50AM (#676909)

    Yeh... I don't want the BSOD all over my face.

    Parent

• The Doctor... not the patient? (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday May 08 2018, @02:38AM

  by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Tuesday May 08 2018, @02:38AM (#676870) Journal

  Shouldn't the patient have to authorize the reprogramming process also beyond just giving permission? (As in physician has the knowledge to change the settings, but the patient should have a control as well to authorize the physician to make the changes. But that could entail real problems if the patient is unconscious, so maybe a third-party escrow vault where the physician can access in a declared medical emergency...)

  --
  This sig for rent.

• Fatal Error (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @06:01PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @06:01PM (#677112)

  System has encountered a fatal error, shutting down.