Security of Implantable Medical Devices Still a Concern

The vulnerability of medical devices to attacks by hackers is getting some renewed attention, thanks to a recently published article from the Boston Globe. The article cites the work of Kevin Fu, a computer science professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst whose work we referenced on medtechinsider last year. Although such an attack on a medical device has never been documented, researchers have demonstrated the problem in the lab.

In the Boston Globe article, Fu is quoted as saying: “The two main risks are access to private information and control of the device. Security and privacy have much room to improve for medical devices.’’

The New England Journal of Medicine recently featured an article from Cardiologist Dr. William Maisel explaining that accidental disruption may be more likely than a deliberate attack. Software attacks could conceivably spread from other computer systems when medical devices automatically communicate with doctors’ offices, hospitals or their manufacturers, according to Maisel.

Tags: Boston Globe, Implants, Kevin Fu