Implantable
Medical devices (IMDs) are not only important in today’s technologically advanced
medical world to help extend the human life, they are now a normal part of our
life in general. IMDs consist of important medical devices like pacemakers,
defibrillators, and even insulin pumps (Homeland Security News Wire, 2015) . What would happen
if IMDs were able to be hacked? What would be the toll on humans if these
devices were vulnerable to attacks? Well, “Roughly 300,000 Americans receive
IMDs a year, with 2.5 million people relying on them to treat a wide variety of
illnesses and conditions like diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. A 2012 study by
the Freedonia Group estimated that demand for IMDs will increase about 7.7 percent
annually. The industry is expected to grow to $52 billion by 2015” (Homeland Security News Wire, 2015) . These numbers sound
alarming. The amount of people that could potentially be affected by these
types of attacks makes me think we should be concerned.
Interestingly
enough, “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued an alert, warning
medical facilities that more than 300 different devices from forty separate
manufacturers had vulnerabilities which could be exploited by a malicious
hacker or group. This warning follows incidents in which computers have been
targeted by computer viruses such as the Stuxnet, credit card cryptographic
algorithms have been reversed engineered, smart phones have been infected with
malware, and Iraqi insurgents hacked the video feed of U.S. Department of
Defense (DOD) Predator drone aircraft” (Homeland Security News Wire, 2015) . Obviously, there
could be some real potential for attackers to exploit any vulnerabilities on
these devices.
There
is a serious issue at hand here. What could happen to the world if anyone could
change your medications or dosage amounts whenever they wanted? How about the
issue of hacking someone’s medical device to do fatal harm to them? “At a 2011
hacker conference, a known hacker who goes by the alias ‘Barnaby Jack’
demonstrated how he could compromise of an insulin pump at a distance of a 300
feet. He could alter the insulin amount remotely, which would result in death
should someone have been implanted with the device. For the first time in the
history of humanity, the human body has become subject to cyber-attacks. The
more we implant tiny computers inside ourselves to monitor and improve our
health, the more we create opportunities for others to hack into our bodies and
subvert these machines for any number of criminal offenses, with homicide being
the most obvious concern” (Homeland Security News Wire, 2015) .
These
are still early issues at this point in time but these are issues that must be understood.
As technology increases, so too does the sophistication of crime. It is important
that these issues be understood, studied, and resolved. We can’t just give up
our new innovations in the medical world because of malicious attacks. As
Information Security professionals, we must monitor, understand, and address
all malicious issues that come up in everything we do. Information Security is
an outstanding field. It is up to us to continue keeping our world secure. I
look forward to reading more on these issues as they develop.
For
more information on sources that I feel are credible in the Information Security
world please see my list below. Typically governmental organizations (like the
Department of Defense, FBI, and the NSA) usually have reliable information on
threats, vulnerabilities, and security news. When it comes to conflicting
sources of information, the best approach is to do your own research so that
you can decide who has all the facts and who does not. This can be tricky but
if you further investigate you should be able to accomplish this task.
Good sources:
Security Week http://www.securityweek.com/
Information Week Dark
Reading http://www.darkreading.com/
Homeland Security News
Wire http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/topics/cybersecurity
References
Homeland Security News Wire. (2015, March 19). Wireless
Implantable Medical Devices Vulnerable to Hacking. Retrieved from
Homeland Security News Wire:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20150319-wireless-implantable-medical-devices-vulnerable-to-hacking
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