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Hacking medical implants, a new threat

Eavesdropper
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Dina Katabi and her team at MIT
 
There are some malicious tech-savvy hackers are out to prove their bonafides and cause trouble, and medical implants may be their next target. It is hard to imagine a person deliberately hurting other people physically just to prove some piece of technology is not secure. In 2008, Harvard Medical School student William Maisel demonstrated that a commercial radio transmitter could be used to modify wireless communications from medical implants, pacemakers to be specific. Maisel showed how the pacemaker could be used to give the user a tremendous shock or just drain the battery quickly. Also, pacemakers are susceptible to the magnets in cell phones, headphones, and other similar gadgets. In 2009, Kevin Fu of the University of Massachusetts (UMass) showed how a simple pair of headphones containing a neodymium magnet interferes with  medical implants dramatically.
 
MIT is going to put a stop to all these possible targets for hackers. Associate Professor Dina Katabi and her team are working on a system that will jam any unauthorized signal from reaching the implant. Katabi wants to add a level of encryption to the jamming transmitter, called a Shield, that the user would wear as an external pendant. Once the proper code is understood by the Shield, then communication is allowed to and from the implant. If it is not receiving the proper code, then the jammer will garble all signals.
 
Working with UMass's Kevin Fu, Dina Katabi is incorporating the unique simultaneous send-and-receive communication to the Shield. Stanford's bidirectional communication device, which is capable of simultaneous data transmission, relies of 3 antennas that that are placed according to the wavelength of the frequency. It turns out that at the distances that medical implant frequencies broadcast at would not allow this option. With Stanford's design in mind, the team created a dual antenna system that allows for dual transmission. Katabi explains, "Think of the jamming signal that we are creating as a secret key. Everyone who doesn't know the secret key just sees a garbage signal." Because the shield knows the shape of its own jamming signal, however, it can, in effect, subtract it from the received signal."
 
With no documented hacker attack on medical implants to date, the need for this level of protection is questionable. Katabi and team believes it is time to start thinking about it, planning for it, and being prepared.  They will be making their case and showing off their technology at the SIGCOMM Conference in Toronto, Canada on August 15-19, 2011.
 
Eavesdropper
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  • Sadly, it looks like making everything Hack Proof now touches all aspects of society.

    Whatever happened to ethics in science and engineering?

    Even when I did work for the department of defense, we were mostly trying to limit people dying, yet there appears to be a more ruthless but capable contingent of people that do not mind killing anyone and everyone they can touch.

     

    I pity anyone who has such an attitude.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

    The Milgram Experiment showed people are capable of high cruelty when they are not directly affected themselves. The detachment to the person being hurt almost made them seem not real. I'm sure some hacker may feel that way when it comes to tampering with an implant.

     

    Also, this is a good way to assassinate someone with health issues. So, I think protection is a must.

     

    E

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