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AnonTechie writes:

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

1. "AnonTechie" - https://soylentnews.org/~AnonTechie/
2. "Hacking Ventilators With DIY Dongles From Poland" - https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3azv9b/why-repair-techs-are-hacking-ventilators-with-diy-dongles-from-poland
3. "common repairs he does on the PB840" - https://www.medtronic.com/covidien/en-us/support/products/mechanical-ventilation/puritan-bennett-pb840-ventilator.html
4. "repairing or refurbishing broken devices" - https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxekgx/hospitals-need-to-repair-ventilators-manufacturers-are-making-that-impossible
5. "Raspberry Pi to Power Ventilators as Demand for Boards Surges" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=20/04/14/0927236
6. "Professional Ventilator Design "Open Sourced" Today by Medtronic" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=20/03/31/0047253
7. "US-CERT Warns of Remotely Exploitable Bugs in Medical Devices" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/11/18/2142241
8. "Medtronic Locks Out Vulnerable Pacemaker Programmer Kit" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/10/17/206217
9. "Hack Causes Pacemakers to Deliver Life-Threatening Shocks" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/08/15/0235249
10. "US Security Agencies Look at Medical Device Security" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/10/28/1216240
11. "Fixers Know What "Repairable" Means--Now There's a Standard for It" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=20/07/06/0112210
12. "'Right to Repair' Taken Up by the ACCC in Farmers' Fight to Fix Their Own Tractors" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=20/04/21/2032207
13. "Europe Wants a 'Right to Repair' Smartphones and Gadgets" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=20/03/13/2137206
14. "Popularity of Older Tractors Boosted by Avoidance of DRM" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=20/01/09/0150251
15. "Hackers, Farmers, and Doctors Unite! Support for Right to Repair Laws Slowly Grows" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/06/21/010248
16. "Reeducating Legislators on the Right to Repair" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/04/30/2258210
17. "Right to Repair Legislation Is Officially Being Considered In Canada" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/02/22/2359231
18. "45 Out of 50 Electronics Companies Illegally Void Warranties After Independent Repair, Sting Reveals" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/10/13/120210
19. "John Deere Just Swindled Farmers Out of Their Right to Repair" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/09/21/0945201
20. "Apple Sued an Independent iPhone Repair Shop Owner and Lost" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/04/17/0419229
21. "The Right to Repair Battle Has Come to California" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/03/08/193233
22. "Tractor Hacking: The Farmers Breaking Big Tech's Repair Monopoly" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/02/02/1521259
23. "Washington State Bill Would Make Hard-to-Repair Electronics Illegal" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/01/28/1426220
24. "Apple, Verizon Join Forces to Lobby Against New York's 'Right to Repair' Law" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/05/25/0033221
25. "Right to Repair" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/03/08/0425241
26. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=42017

printed from SoylentNews, Why Repair Techs are Hacking Ventilators with DIY Dongles from Poland on 2024-04-19 09:24:21