Hackers have a serious problem with the wireless control of insulin pumps exposed. Up to a distance of one hundred metres, the pump may in theory be disrupted, that the device the patient nt a fatal dose administer.
The vulnerable pumps from the firm Medtronic. A hacker discovered the vulnerability in August, but employees of McAfee have recently fixed an exploit written. Using proprietary software, they took the pump control. Troublemakers in the same way diabetics for a deadly overdose.
Jack Barnaby McAfee demonstrated the vulnerability at the Hacker Halted conference in the United States. The Medtronic pumps make use of small radio stations, that data is unencrypted receive and send on the 900Mhz frequency. This allows the sugar content for the patient are indicated. According to Barnaby the wireless pump can be cracked with self-written software and an antenna that the device can locate. It is not necessary to use the serial number to know, allows Barnaby opposite to Reuters. How the hack exactly works is not clear.
Via a portable device the patient’s blood to measure, and then the blood results wirelessly to an insulin pump to be sent. Which then measure the amount of insulin that a suikerpatiënt need. The exact amount is given through a needle into the skin is sprayed.
McAfee and Medtronic do not want to indicate which pump is concerned, but it would be to model numbers 712 and go higher. According to Reuters, use worldwide, two-hundred thousand patients the device. Medtronic has two pumps on the market, but also supports six older models. Although there are no cases of attacks on insulin pumps are known, Medtronic’s vulnerability to, say rapidly closing. Barnaby: “We’re talking about code that ten years ago was designed. There was not really thought about the security of these systems.”
