I guess everyone has been in a situation where his or her laptop was affected by Malware or his/her e-mail account has been hacked. Even though it is nerve rendering and time consuming to fix the problem, it usually does not have long-lasting consequences for your daily life. But would what happen if it does and potentially decide about life or death?
In the near future, malicious software could pose a direct threat to the human body as technologies such as pacemakers and cochlear implants will be used more frequently to improve health conditions. These devices use wireless connectivity, remote controlling and monitoring which helps doctors to support patients with treatments. Implants can be adjusted without the need for invasive procedures. However, these benefits also present a massive not be underestimated downside. They can be hacked. In an article published by the Healthline in 2019, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning that hackers can easily gain access to pacemakers of patients. On the one hand, this poses significant data privacy issues as personnel health data can be retrieved and misused for different purposes. On the other hand, a much more significant issue arises through the fact that hackers are able to block the device, adjust settings and suppress shocks when desperately needed which could eventually lead to the death of patients. (Newman 2018). As technology advancements are further increasing and are often used in the health care industry today, cybersecurity for implants and other medical devices that make use of wireless connectivity will become a massive issue in the future. Just imagine someone implemented ransomware in one of your implants or hacked your pacemaker and is blackmailing you. Then this really can become a life or death situation, in which you do not want to lose out to somebody. We are often so overwhelmed by new technologies and features that we easily forget that technology also offers many possibilities for criminal activities. So with this blog, I would like to encourage you to think also critically about new technologies and their consequences for our daily life.
References:
Curley B., (2019). Hackers can Access Pacemakers, but don’t panic yet. Healthline [online] Available at https://www.healthline.com/health-news/are-pacemakers-defibrillators-vulnerable-to-hackers[Accessed at 06.10.2019]
Newman L. H., (2018). A new Pacemaker Hack puts Malware directly on the Device. Wired [online] Available at https://www.wired.com/story/pacemaker-hack-malware-black-hat/
[Accessed at 06.10.2019]
Hi Sebastian,
thanks for sharing this blogpost, which really encouraged me to think critically about ethics within new technologies and their consequences in our daily life. I think it is important to consider that our increasing reliance on technology is changing our behaviour and has made us more vulnerable regarding potential hacker attacks. The mere thought that someone could e.g. hack into your pacemaker or insulin pump and potentially kill you, just by intercepting is still far away for me but actually its just about to turn into reality. I think leaving this security issue with the biotech companies will not be sufficient and the bigger picture and potential threats need to be taken into account rather sooner than later by society as a whole.
I found an interesting article from Purdue university you might want to look at; they developed a physical understanding of the security properties of human body communication to enable a covert body area network against hacker attacks. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190312151233.htm
Do you think the government has to forbid the use of wireless connectivity within life-saving medical devices?
Great post!
This really opens up a whole new element of cyber-health security.
This might actually open up a whole new sector and a gap in the market for health care security.
Would love to explore more.
This is a really interesting blog but I do have a few comments.
First of all, I totally agree that this can be extremely dangerous and researchers were able to perform several attacks on pacemakers.
Nevertheless, these hackers won’t be able to perform these attacks from their basements, that is something from movies. They would have to be within a few feet of the patient and would have to time their attacks when the pacemaker “wakes up” to communicate the data, this limits the risk. Of course it is still possible to do and that is scary but on the other hand, when a criminal is within a few feet of the victim, he/she has other ways to harm this person.
I agree that the cyber security of pacemakers and other devices should be a priority for the firms that produce it but luckily the chance that hackers will hack the devices is a lot smaller than some newspapers suggest.
Great post! I agree with the fact that we need to be very careful with these revolutionizing technologies, we shouldn’t distrust it either. Over the years, technology has proved to be very wealth increasing. The potential of technology in health care specific, will save more lives than hackers can destroy. However, we have to make a careful design and not rush to new solutions.
Hi Sebastian,
this is indeed a very serious concern. I think that specifically regarding the healthcare industry, a major concern is not only the malicious hacking of such devices, but also concerns of data privacy regarding the device providers. As the typical hub companies (i.e. Amazon, Google, Microsoft) are also moving into the wearable healthcare device market, society and policy makers have to think about a way to prevent the development of a potential “data super power”. Just imagine the power e.g. Amazon would have if they’d not only knew what and when you consume specific products, but also what your current health status is etc. A lot has to be done in this area and legislation needs to be adjusted.
Hi Sebastian.
You brought up an interesting topic. I recently read an article about a company called Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk. Apparently, Elon’s ambition is at all sorts of fancy Sci-fi projects, one of which is developing implantable brain-machine interface. He believes that human intelligence can be widely improved with the help of implantable devices in your brain and that it will enable humans to stay intelligent enough compared to AI, once the AI becomes smarter than human in every way. However, like any intel-processors, this device can never be free from potential threat of hacking which can jeopardise the lives of those who got the computer devices implanted in their brains. Despite such potential threats, I think in very near future, people will start implanting devices in their body either to develop their intelligence or to prolong their life because our greed is endless.