Improving the Security of Sensors in Implantable Medical Devices
The type of sensors that detect a heartbeat in implanted cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers are vulnerable to tampering, according to University of Michigan researchers and others in an international team. In experiments in simulated human models, the researchers demonstrated that they could forge an erratic heartbeat with radio frequency electromagnetic waves. Theoretically, a false signal like the one they created could inhibit needed pacing or induce unnecessary defibrillation shocks. The researchers stress that they know of no case where a hacker has corrupted an implanted cardiac device, and doing so in the real world would be extremely difficult. Their research will simply enable future devices to be completely tamper-resistant.
Transcript
00:00:03 tomorrow's medical devices are going to be much more interoperable have different devices talking to each other and it'll be so much more important to secure that wireless communication between all those devices this is an an experiment setup for uh the security of medical devices we're using a synthetic human um particularly we're looking at
00:00:24 interference researchers have identified a new security risk in the sensors of medical devices such as implantable cardiac defibrillators and Pacemakers in my laboratory we look at how to improve the security of devices ranging from RFID enabled credit cards to implantable medical devices this is a defibrillator that was explanted from a patient and was donated and we use these
00:00:50 devices to test how secure they are and our research explores how to make sure that the wireless interface doesn't lead to a compromise of the system all electronic devices emit different kinds of electromagnetic interference and they can interfere with medical devices the researchers found that they could use radio interference to send false heartbeat signals to the devices in
00:01:14 controlled lab conditions theoretically a false signal could inhibit needed pacing or cause unnecessary defibrillation shocks experiments show that this would be very difficult to do in the real world however researchers say patients with these devices can be confident that their implants are safe today by and large I don't see much intentional uh harm being done to a
00:01:38 medical device in fact I'm aware of none I think patients today who are prescribed a device are much better off with that device than without but the kinds of research we look at in my laboratory will enable future devices to be more available to patients without having to worry about the security issues if we can design particles that essentially Act as robots once we inject
00:02:02 them they are intelligent enough to go to based on our design to the location that we want them to and only go there