The US Food and Drug Administration has just issued an advisory note recalling 465,000 radio-controlled implantable cardiac pacemakers because these pacemakers have been confirmed as having cyber-security issues. According to the BBC, Abbott, the manufacturer of the faulty pacemakers, has admitted that there could be a further 280,000 devices affected making a total of 745,000 pacemakers.
theoretically The flaws could be used to cause the devices to trigger malfunction either batter run down or alter the pace.The Department of Homeland Security has said that an attacker would need "high skill" to exploit the vulnerabilities.
The affected pacemakers have been made by St Jude Medical, which was acquired by Abbott earlier this year."As with any firmware update, there is a very low risk of an update malfunction," the FDA said.Patients are being advised to confront their doctors about an available firmware update at their next scheduled appointment.
The pacemakers can receive the revised code by being placed close to a radio wave-emitting wand in a process that lasts about three minutes.
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