Securing medical devices against cyberattacks

Telegraph : The ability of modern medical devices, such as pacemakers, to wirelessly connect to computers has allowed doctors and other medical professionals to more easily monitor them. However, US security experts say that such accessibility could also make them easy prey for terrorists. According to the Department of Homeland Security, there are some 300 medical devices on the market today that have unchangeable passwords. That lack of security could allow a person with malicious intent to gain access and change the settings, perhaps to send a series of shocks to accelerate the heartbeat and cause a fatal arrhythmia or to prevent the device from functioning properly. Besides the development of noise shields and other methods of blocking access, software is being written to look out for any unusual activity or tampering. So far there have been no reports of deaths or injuries caused by such a bodily cyberattack.