750,000 Medtronic defibrillators vulnerable to hacking

Mar 22, 20190

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The Medtronic CareLink 2090 Programmer is a portable computer system used to program and manage cardiac devices in clinic and during implant. The device allows a doctor to set the exact parameters for when the defibrillator should send pulses or high-voltage shocks to the heart. It was among more than a dozen devices named in a March 2019 cybersecurity advisory.

As many as 750,000 heart devices made by Medtronic PLC contain a serious cybersecurity vulnerability that could let an attacker with sophisticated insider knowledge harm a patient by altering programming on an implanted defibrillator, company and federal officials said Thursday.

The Homeland Security Department, which oversees security in critical U.S. infrastructure including medical devices, issued an alert Thursday describing two types of computer-hacking vulnerabilities in 16 different models of Medtronic implantable defibrillators sold around the world, including some still on the market today. The vulnerability also affects bedside monitors that read data from the devices in patients' homes and in-office programming computers used by doctors.

http://www.startribune.com/750-000-medtronic-defibrillators-vulnerable-to-hacking/507470932/