Alex I'll Take Medical Device Stupidity For $800.00

[AF6LJ]

Because what happens in Vegus stays in Vegus?

That's Cute....
Now can you come over and clean the coffee spray off my monitor.

[AC4BB]

It was bound to happen... When I first found about how some pacematers are tuned... Now we have insulin pumps that are aligned by way of a wireless connection. This is even dumber than putting aluminum in vaccines.
Thank You Slashdot.org.....
McAfee Claims Successful Insulin Pump Attack

judgecorp writes
"Intel security subsidiary McAfee has claimed a successful wireless attack on insulin pumps that diabetics rely on to control blood sugar. While previous attempts to attack insulin pumps have met with mixed success, McAfee's Barnaby Jack says he has persuaded an insulin pump to deliver 45 days worth of insulin in one go, without triggering the pump's vibrating alert safety feature. All security experts still say that surgical implants are a benefit overall."

Medical devices like any others have things that are going to adversly affect their operation. I do insulin the old fashioned way. Works for me.

[KJ6VCN]

Frightening!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17623948

Quick nurse! The kiss of life and some screens!

G4ALA

Simply insane. I understand the desire to control these devices through RF, but a 90-meter range? That's just pointless. A doctor or EMT wouldn't need to be more than 1-m away to trigger a device. And no form of per-unit control? So, anyone within range with the codes can send out a signal that could kill tens of people, if not hundreds (if an attack was planned in a diabetic care center)?

I'm sure the health-care workers think it's "neat" to be able to track all of their patients conditions, but couldn't that just be done on a per-person basis? "Walk though the airport-scanner-like thing, give us your pin, and we'll check your status." Now that would allow much more security.

But even if we could control the security aspect 100% (and we can't and never will be able to), what about the RF exposure? Usually not such a big deal in small doses, but these devices transmit from inside the body. I'm not that knowledgeable on that topic, so someone will have to fill me in, but doesn't it seem just the slightest bit dangerous?

Moral of the story: I should probably start taking better care of myself before it's too late.

[AF6LJ]

Simply insane. I understand the desire to control these devices through RF, but a 90-meter range? That's just pointless. A doctor or EMT wouldn't need to be more than 1-m away to trigger a device. And no form of per-unit control? So, anyone within range with the codes can send out a signal that could kill tens of people, if not hundreds (if an attack was planned in a diabetic care center)?

I'm sure the health-care workers think it's "neat" to be able to track all of their patients conditions, but couldn't that just be done on a per-person basis? "Walk though the airport-scanner-like thing, give us your pin, and we'll check your status." Now that would allow much more security.

But even if we could control the security aspect 100% (and we can't and never will be able to), what about the RF exposure? Usually not such a big deal in small doses, but these devices transmit from inside the body. I'm not that knowledgeable on that topic, so someone will have to fill me in, but doesn't it seem just the slightest bit dangerous?

Moral of the story: I should probably start taking better care of myself before it's too late.

If I were the engineer who decided on the standards these devices had to run under.
I would require skin contact in order to change the settings of these devices.
In other words the range would be limited to two inches above the skin.
Beyond that the implanted device wouldn't be able to receive the signal.