MELBOURNE — Security experts say pacemakers can be hacked and used as a deadly weapon that can also “infect” other devices and steal personal information.
Barnaby Jack, an IOActive researcher, was able to send a series of 830-volt shocks (enough to cause death) to a pacemaker and use a “secret function” to activate other pacemakers within a 30-foot radius, according to SC Magazine.
With that function activated, the devices would give up their serial numbers, allowing hackers to upload malware that could spread like a virus to other pacemakers. Jack said that the devices, if infected, could release personal and manufacturer data.
“The worst case scenario that I can think of, which is 100 percent possible with these devices, would be to load a compromised firmware update onto a programmer and… the compromised programmer would then infect the next pacemaker or [defibrillator] and then each would subsequently infect all others in range,” he said at a conference.
Jack’s study goes along with one done last year at the University of Washington, where researchers were able to take control of implanted pacemakers and take personal data.