Connected health devices is in danger

Just imagine when a device is implanted in your heart to keep beating, just consider for a moment it can be hacked, if you have pacemaker. This week FDA had recalled 4,65,000 of the medical devices - the ones that help control your heart beat -- citing security vulnerabilities. That is exactly what experts are warning could happen to cardiac implants made by device maker Abbott (formerly St. Jude Medical Inc.), require a firmware update since , they are vulnerable to hacking.

Fortunately, it can be installed by a health care provider in just three minutes. The models affected include the Accent, Anthem, Accent MRI, Accent ST, Assurity, and Allure.

You need a pacemaker if your heart is pumping too quickly or slowly. In either case, your body doesn’t get enough blood. This can cause:

* fatigue

* fainting or lightheadedness

* shortness of breath

* damage to vital organs

* eventual death

A pacemaker regulates your body’s electrical system, which controls your heart rhythm. With each heartbeat, an electrical impulse travels from the top of your heart to the bottom, signaling your heart’s muscles to contract. A pacemaker can also track and record your heartbeat. A record can help your doctor better understand your arrhythmia.

A pacemaker is a small electrical battery-operated device that's surgically implanted in the chest of patients to help control their heartbeats. The device uses low-energy electrical pulses to stimulate the heart to beat at a normal rate.
 

The implantable cardiac pacemakers-contain configurable embedded computer systems that can be vulnerable to cybersecurity intrusions and exploits," the FDA said in a security advisory. As medical devices become increasingly interconnected via the Internet, hospital networks, other medical devices, and smartphones, there is an increased risk of exploitation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, some of which could affect how a medical device operates."

There are no known reports of patient harm related to the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the 465,000 (US) implanted devices impacted. To address these cybersecurity vulnerabilities and improve patient safety, St. Jude Medical has developed and validated this firmware update as a corrective action (recall) for all of their RF-enabled pacemaker devices, including cardiac resynchronization pacemakers. The FDA has approved St. Jude Medical's firmware update to ensure that it addresses these cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and reduces the risk of exploitation and subsequent patient harm.

After installing this update, any device attempting to communicate with the implanted pacemaker must provide authorization to do so. The Merlin Programmer and Merlin@home Transmitter will provide such authorization.

The firmware update will be available beginning August 29, 2017. Pacemakers manufactured beginning August 28, 2017 will have this update pre-loaded in the device and will not need the update.

Tags: Connected health devices is in danger, heart beat, security vulnerabilities, fda, healthcare, fatigue, fainting, lightheadedness, shortness of breath, damage to vital organs, eventual death, pacemaker , heartbeat,  cybersecurity, health network,  Merlin Programmer, varindia