Title: TIN-FOIL HAT TIME!
Birdbomb - August 20, 2008 09:50 PM (GMT)
Okay everyone...get out your tinfoil hats!
Line up to the left for a big dose of paranoia.
source
Scientists design shield to prevent deadly pacemaker hijack
'cloaking' device that stops computer hackers maliciously hijacking pacemakers' radio signals could save lives, say scientists.
Doctors are increasingly using wireless pacemakers to monitor the regulation of patients' heartbeats, and can even adjust the settings remotely.
But earlier this year a team of US scientists using a radio signal were able to simulate interference with the devices and claimed that, in theory, hijackers could shut them down or deliver potentially lethal electric shocks to millions of heart patients.
Now Dr Tamara Denning, a computer scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, has devised a cloaking device that is designed to resist any instructions that come from anyone other than the doctor.
The device - which has yet to be tested - could eventually be worn like a wristwatch, New Scientist magazine reports.
Although irresponsible attacks on pacemakers may seem unlikely, Dr Denning points out that in 2007 hackers posted flashing images to the Epilepsy Foundation's website - apparently with the aim of triggering attacks in people visiting the site.
'We wanted to draw attention not to a prevalent threat, but to a possible future one,' she said.
However, Dr William Maisel of Harvard University, who led the pacemaker hacking experiment earlier this year, said the cloaker was unrealistic.
In an emergency, a cloaker could be hidden in clothing and be hard for doctors to find.
'You're asking hundreds of thousands or millions of people to wear something every day for a theoretical risk,' he said.
Line up to the left for a big dose of paranoia.
source
Scientists design shield to prevent deadly pacemaker hijack
'cloaking' device that stops computer hackers maliciously hijacking pacemakers' radio signals could save lives, say scientists.
Doctors are increasingly using wireless pacemakers to monitor the regulation of patients' heartbeats, and can even adjust the settings remotely.
But earlier this year a team of US scientists using a radio signal were able to simulate interference with the devices and claimed that, in theory, hijackers could shut them down or deliver potentially lethal electric shocks to millions of heart patients.
Now Dr Tamara Denning, a computer scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, has devised a cloaking device that is designed to resist any instructions that come from anyone other than the doctor.
The device - which has yet to be tested - could eventually be worn like a wristwatch, New Scientist magazine reports.
Although irresponsible attacks on pacemakers may seem unlikely, Dr Denning points out that in 2007 hackers posted flashing images to the Epilepsy Foundation's website - apparently with the aim of triggering attacks in people visiting the site.
'We wanted to draw attention not to a prevalent threat, but to a possible future one,' she said.
However, Dr William Maisel of Harvard University, who led the pacemaker hacking experiment earlier this year, said the cloaker was unrealistic.
In an emergency, a cloaker could be hidden in clothing and be hard for doctors to find.
'You're asking hundreds of thousands or millions of people to wear something every day for a theoretical risk,' he said.
Dispatch - August 21, 2008 02:04 AM (GMT)
If someone can hijack a pacemaker, then it would be highly possible to hijack a VNS or an internal defib. OH my goodness.
Dispatch B)
Dispatch B)
Bernard - August 21, 2008 04:19 AM (GMT)
If it is possible to do, some maladjusted idiot will do it.
Dispatch - August 22, 2008 12:54 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Bernard @ Aug 20 2008, 11:19 PM) |
| If it is possible to do, some maladjusted idiot will do it. |
:Yeah That: Bernard!.................
Bonnie - August 29, 2008 02:22 PM (GMT)
OH MY LORD! What is wrong with these people?! Now, you can be killed via the internet because of a hacker interfering with life signal's?!
What else can happen?! Too much I would say. This world just gets scarier and scarier! These psychopaths are intelligent and vicious! And that is exactly what they are, only their targets are not direct but via other ways and means.
It's an evil world we live in that's for sure. All it seems like is buying things to protect yourself, your identity and now this etc.
Pray people for justice and peace.
Sincerely,
Bonnie