IT GIVES new meaning to the term “heart attack”. Last week researchers led by William Maisel at Harvard University used a commercially available radio transmitter to hijack the software on a device that acts as both a heart pacemaker and defibrillator.
The device was not implanted in anyone, but raises the prospect of hackers being able to disrupt a person’s heartbeat or stealthily administer damaging shocks.
Is the threat of a hacker-instigated heart attack imminent? “The chances of someone being harmed by malicious reprogramming of their device is remote,” says Maisel. However, implanted drug pumps and neurostimulators, which…
