When Vice President Dick Cheney received a new defibrillator in 2007, his doctor disabled the device’s wireless capabilities so that it wouldn’t be vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
“I worried that someone could kill you,” his cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner, told him years later on CBS’ 60 Minutes.
While healthcare systems have focused on warding off threats from malware and ransomware, a more insidious way to create havoc is gaining attention: hackers targeting patients by changing or disabling network-connected medical devices and diagnostic test results. Earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a meeting to highlight the potential dangers.