VentureBeat - Latest Comments in Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

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Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

Red Articles — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:21:46 -0000

Pacemaker problems can rarely occur long after the implantation procedure. These "late" complications include generator failure (extremely rare), and lead failure (less rare). Lead failure can occur

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

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Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

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Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

edsion007 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:22:12 -0000

Hmmm.. why it has to do with twitter so much?

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

spammeblind — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:09:19 -0000

Just a word of sanity for the moron researchers. If you read the paper carefully you'll see they have to be less than 5 centimeters from the device to make the connection. That means someone has to be standing in front, or behind you, with a sensing device placed upon your chest. The connection is inductive, to connect outside of the 5cm limit would require exponentially more power. I don't think anyone would survive the power source, let alone have a actively functioning device. They were very careful to hide the truth in the article, and the really funny part is one of the morons received $449,000 dollars for this "discovery". In simple terms they committed a replay attack, but again remember less than 5 centimeters.

Simple answer is they are going to become famous because the press exaggerates to sell papers, and the researchers don't have the intelligence, or the morals, to correct them.

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

rayden54 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:23:45 -0000

The research is necessary. Reporting the flaws before they've been fixed is just dumb.

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

rayden54 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:19:11 -0000

That's not right.

It isn't ignorance is bliss. You see now both sides know. Is it worth telling the bad guys to keep the good guys informed?

To put it into a metaphor, it would be like telling everyone in town that your door's unlocked. Not everyone is a killer, sure, but it only takes one.

As far as the "skill and access" thing goes. They may be low, but one person can do a lot of damage. Especially if this attack can be done remotely to more than one pacemaker at a time.

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

E-Man — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:28:28 -0000

Yep. Those granddaddy Cylon Model Ts did have that peculiarity. That, and the roving red eye that didn't let you shoot (or spank) straight, either.

@-)

One of my Granddads had a clock in his stomach (according to Grandma). But he was an old navy man - so it must have been very early-on research. :D

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

DS3M — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:41:18 -0000

Well lets hope he suffocates in there waiting for the invasion of Iran

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

DS3M — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:39:47 -0000

My Father in Law cant be around old microwave ovens.
They gotta be newer than 2002 or something...

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

DS3M — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:38:35 -0000

Not sure if you read the article, but Fu attempted to contact the pacemaker companies for specs, while fully explaining the research task ahead.

Most companies will be thick headed and rebuff a hacker that says "I have found a flaw here here and here, I can exploit it in this fashion, I can do this within your systems, help me help you and we can solve it and close it together."
Others will integrate them into R + D for their software

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

DS3M — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:33:40 -0000

Weird... By Your Logic you would rather not know that there is a killer in your neighborhood, even as he creeps through your side door?

Come on, you have a family member with one of these, of course you should be concerned that there is a flaw that went (relatively) undetected and was certainly not locked up by the manufacturers.

Wouldn't you rather the "good guys" know about it than the bad ones?

It works well that the companies didn't hand over their specs freely; that the researcher (Kevin Fu) was up front and honest [and managed to get some help from Harvard] made it better.

It shows it can be done by someone with skill and access, both of which are likely to be low enough all around to prevent your average russian hackers from pulling off "Heart Stop USA 2010."

In any case, I am the type of person that considers biomechanical integration something to be weary of. I would opt to die or have some other surgery than have a pacemaker. Straight up.

I am also aware that most things that are mechanical are up to receive interference...
Not interested in letting the man implant and then zap me at their will...

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

r. manhammer — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:46:39 -0000

Is there something wrong with executing war criminals? Why do you hate America?

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:53:54 -0000

Next time when you're at Wal-mart, get a sense of humor.

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:51:51 -0000

That joke was old a decade ago. Get a life

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

Alcari — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:47:30 -0000

So what's the problem? Just add a rotating 512 bit encryption key, so the odds of guessing it correctly are minute without actually getting your hands on said pacemaker before implantation. Make it react only to a very specific signal strength so it can only be interfaced with using special equipment and not just any radio.

Problem solved. This is not that big a problem and can be solved for 20 dollars worth of electronics and 2 hours of work.

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

Ervin Wright — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:17:22 -0000

I have an ICD, question how can my ICD be protected? Would it reqire the wearing of a lead lined shirt or something like that?

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

daniel — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:40:28 -0000

Scott get your head out of the sand!

Without research that pushes boundaries and questions accepted norms then there would be no progress: the manufacturers would continue to build sub-standard equipment if it meant protecting their bottom line (profits).

Ignorance of a problem doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist and research that highlights such problems isn't irresponsible. The researchers involved attempted to work together with the manufacturers but they refused to help (because by doing so they would expose the flaws in their equipment and hurt company profits).

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

jimoaklandu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:18:34 -0000

what a DESPICABLE jerk you must be!!!!!!!

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

eric — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:38:05 -0000

cheers

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

Quin — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:33:18 -0000

The reason for the large, close antenna is because the doctors want to limit exposure. With everything in ideal positions and very close to the pacemaker, they can use a lot less power to broadcast the signal. The bad guys do not have this concern for the patients health.

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

mitch — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:38:13 -0000

Scott, you haven't read the above points? This kind of research is absolutely necessary. You can't predict whether a random RF-emitting gadget could trigger an unwanted change in the pacemaker. This research proves that there's a danger in leaving pacemakers unsecure, and now the pacemaker companies have a reason to make them secure: consumers know there's a danger. If you think the research is irresponsible and dangerous because now ONE OF THE BAD GUYS!!! is going to work out the same hack and kill a guy with a pacemaker - that's completely unrealistic. As Monsterbox said above, all it takes is a ham radio and a laptop to do this. If some BAD GUY wanted to do this, they would have figured it out a long time ago. The research isn't opening a door for murderers, it's closing a door for unintentional disruption of the device.

Man, reading comments like yours always make me think there's a chance that the companies themselves are sending someone around to draw attention away from the importance of the article, so they don't have to do anything...

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

Scott — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:31:28 -0000

This type of 'research', and the reporting of such 'research' is irresponsible, and extremely dangerous. Publishing dangerous stories such as this really calls into question a site's management and guidance. This issue has crossed many sites off my favorites list.

Re: Defcon: Excuse me while I turn off your pacemaker

Kalief — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:11:36 -0000

Nice. When can I buy the satellite version?