A presentation by hacker and diabetic Jerome Radcliffe at the Black Hat Technical Security Conference last week demonstrated that some types of insulin monitoring and administration systems can be remotely accessed and tampered with, according to CBS News.
Out of fear for his own safety he wanted to see if he could hack into these wireless medical devices. As a senior threat intelligence analyst for a major computer security organization, it only made sense that he would test his own defense against hackers.
It would only take one person to do this to kill someone and then you have a catastrophe.
He told CBS that his aim was not to cause undue panic with the demonstration, but rather to show that medical software compliance is an issue that must be taken very seriously, as the healthcare profession continues to adopt new technology to improve patient care.
With a powerful enough antenna, an attacker could be up to a half a mile away. This attack worked on two different blood-sugar monitors.
The demonstration, experts say, is further proof that FDA software development must include extensive security features and embedded software testing to provide an adequate defense against such attacks. The consequences of allowing networked devices to remain unsecured are potentially fatal.
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