You thought this was a creepy, personal fantasy.
It turns out to be real. I told’ya, didn’t I?
FDA recalls close to half-a-million pacemakers over hacking fears
Turns out former Vice President (and erratic shooter) Dick Cheney was right all along: Your heart can be hacked. At least if you have a pacemaker, that is. On Tuesday, the FDA recalled 465,000 of the medical devices — the ones that help control your heart beat — citing security vulnerabilities. The pacemakers, which come from health company Abbott (formerly St. Jude Medical), require a firmware update. Fortunately, it can be installed by a health care provider in just three minutes. The models affected include the Accent, Anthem, Accent MRI, Accent ST, Assurity, and Allure.
EPISODE: NCIS – NEED TO KNOW (2012)
Alan Katzenbach, a lawyer, waits for Gibbs with his client, a chief petty officer named Leland Wiley. Wiley was busted for drugs and wants to trade information he has — which he claims involves national security and Agah Bayar, the arms dealer.
Gibbs is interested. Wiley comes over to talk, but grabs his heart and drops to the ground.
Gibbs comes for the update from Ducky. Turns out, Wiley had top security clearance and his workstation is locked down. They haven’t been able to connect him to Bayar yet.
Abby calls Gibbs to the lab. She tells him Wiley’s pacemaker was linked into a computer to monitor it. Someone hacked it and raised his heart rate up to more than 400 beats per minute.
“Somebody murdered Wiley by remote control,” she says.
What does this have to do with me?
Well, I’m glad you asked. This particular episode so intrigued the heart surgery team at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston where a group of surgeons wanted to see if it COULD be done. Can you “attack” a pacemaker by remote control? One of the people that performed this experiment was my surgeon.
They did it, though my surgeon pointed out you had to be no more than a couple of feet from the pacemaker to do it. But you could do it. So, they contacted the manufacturer who changed the programming to protect it from potential attack. Cool, yes?
NOTES:
I had all that heart surgery in March 2014, not 2013 (how soon we forget) — which I now know was 2014 because I have implant cards to tell people what spare parts are in my body. Unfortunately, none of them indicates which part is which — which ones are implanted heart valves and which one is the pacemaker. Just trying to find out if my pacemaker is being recalled. I mean, my car is being recalled, so why not my pacemaker?
I also had one transplant card for each breast, but that one seems to have gone missing. Oh well … I believe that number is imprinted on the silicon baggies, so I’m sure they will find it as needed.
In theory, nobody can hack my pacemaker because the surgeons fixed it back in 2012. I am safe from remote terrorists. Which is good, because worrying about it was keeping me up at night.
I find it oddly comforting. Garry finds it disturbing. I suppose I can see where he’s coming from. He doesn’t like thinking about the mechanical and electronic stuff that keeps me alive. It would creep me out too, but I’m a bit of a geek and can detach from it on a personal level and get into the coolness of the electronics.
It is kind of creepy. However, it doesn’t matter. No matter how I feel about it, I’ve got this thing in my chest. It keeps my heart beating. If my heart beat on its own, I wouldn’t need the pacemaker.
Every time I go for a pacemaker checkup, they use a little machine and briefly stop the pacemaker to see if my heart will beat without it. My heart stops beating. Talk about creepy. It is an icky feeling. Anyone with a pacemaker knows what I mean.
The blue tooth remote functions work. They are (in theory) more secure than they were before the NCIS episode aired and the guys got curious. Remote functionality is important. After all, I might need a remote tune-up. Blue tooth lets my doctor access my pacemaker from … how far? I don’t actually know. A considerable distance, whatever that is.
Garry — again — doesn’t want to know about it. I pointed out if someone murders me, this is potentially important evidence. He would rather not think about it.
So there we are. Too creepy?
I can feel my pacemaker. It’s in the hollow by my left shoulder. The outline is visible. I can feel the wires, the connections through my skin. It’s impossible to ignore. I might as well find it interesting. It’s part of me, after all.
Categories: #Health, Computers, Humor, Medical, Software, Technology, Television
We had a good friend who had a pacemaker for several years. His worked well, and I’m sure hoping yours continues to work well. I find it so strange that anyone would even want to mess with someone’s pacemaker. What kind of human being would want to do that? That person scares me to death. 🙂
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Well, there are a big load of really rotten human beings in this world. In case you haven’t noticed. Hackers think this stuff is fun. Fun. They do it for no profit, just to make the life of other people miserable. For the hell of it. I don’t know about Hell, but if there is one, I sure hope they are going there.
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I sometimes think of myself as the bionic woman because I hate a hip replacement. I only wish it gave me super speed instead of super cautiousness on ice. But whatever tricks we tell ourself to keep from freaking out on a daily basis is allowable, in my book!
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Mary-Lynne, mebbe one of those Star Trek medicos can trans-beam a hip replacement. Do we have Federation Health Insurance?
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Current administration run by Romulans via the Ferengi Empire. Trust no one until the Vulcans are back on board.
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Make it so.
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So true,Kirizar. Trust no one.
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I feel I’m just running out of spare parts. I really hope no one decides I need something more. I think I have enough!
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No matter how many parts are missing, you will always be enough! Remember that!
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Some days seem more like that than others. This isn’t one of the better days. But tomorrow may be much better.
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Nice to see you’re still keeping pace with technology Duh-huh! 🙂
Are there any places you have to avoid for fear of electromagnetic interference with the pacemaker Marilyn?
love
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Airport scanners. MRIs. Anything where there is a powerful magnetic force in action. They are beginning to make newer ones without metal, but I don’t have one of them.
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Glad to know you aren’t vulnerable, Marilyn.
Leslie
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As far as I know, anyhow. Besides, I really have nothing worth stealing.
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They could steal your heart….
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How romantic!
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it would be dramatic…..
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They’ll have to go over me!!
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I would suggest a foil vest for Marilyn.
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Maybe full body armor? Self propelled, I hope!
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Self propelled sound good. I’ll take one of those too.
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It could become trendy.
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New means of travel – I like it….
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Fascinating! Thanks for sharing, Marilyn.
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I like to think that anyone doing this kind of hacking is looking for someone more important than me! I would hope so.
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wow Marilyn- so great to have been in on the hacking idea at the beginning and so good to know you are safe. I always say if these hackers would put all their genius capabilities into something positive it would be amazing- rather than hurting people and stealing.
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Well, the heart hackers aren’t looking for me. I don’t have a single secret anyone would care about! They could do a lot of good … and sometimes, they turn around and actually do something useful. Mostly, they seem to be rogues, not interested in helping anyone, even themselves.
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More power to your parts (both of you) natural and mechanical!
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As long as my battery keeps ticking, I’m good 😀
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The bionic woman?
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Garry calls himself the Bionic Man because of his eye implants and hearing aids, but I think I’ve got him beat 🙂
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Hope they don’t get any slow motion video of the bionic couple.
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frightening
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In the end, probably no scarier than my fake boobs or my artificial heart valve. I worry about the life of the battery more than I worry about getting hacked. Why would anyone bother? Not like I have any secret information.
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Amazing, Marilyn. I admire your courage and curiosity!!!
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I don’t know about the courage, but I’m down with the curiosity 🙂
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Of course, I’m spooked by this. The Cops always blame the Black guy.
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You’re Samoan.
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Nobody would ever suspect… the Samoan did it!
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Yeah, go ahead. BLAME the Samoan.
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I’m of Royal Samoan heritage. Don’t you know who I am?
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Me Samoan, You Mary-Lynne.
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Where wolf?
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