14 DAY TRIAL // Pacemakers are real lifesavers, but many people don't know that the tiny wireless radios they contain can be accessed by hackers. The jamming device that could stop this is unwelcome by current laws and telecommunication companies.
The wireless equipment contained in the implant has the role of alerting doctors in case anything should happen.
Next-generation pacemakers are specially built to prevent external interfering, the problem being with older models, already used by patients. These devices cannot be modified to block out unwanted connections, the only way of offering this group of people the required protection is by changing the implant surgically.
If left unprotected, cybercriminals could access data and even reprogram it, fact which could lead to the death of the beneficiary.
According to Forbes, MIT and University of Massachusetts researchers have recently developed a jamming device that should secure the apparatus, protecting it against attacks.
The new equipment has the size of a laptop and it seems to have done a great job at all the tests thrown at it. It allegedly managed to block out signals 100 times stronger than the one emitted by the pacemaker.
The great thing about this innovation is that it is able of blocking alien signals, while still allowing the doctor in charge of the patient to receive data.
While the medical world welcomes the new invention, the Federal Communications Commission doesn't take kindly to this kind of equipment. Interference devices are prohibited and no one seems to be willing to make an exception, especially after 9/11 events.
On the other hand, the mobile phone industry is also unfriendly when it comes to devices that use “their” wireless frequencies.
The current size of the device is clearly unpractical, but once the concept is present, its shrinkage would be just a matter of time. Unfortunately, unless regulations are modified to make room for such practical appliances, the millions of people whose lives depend on old pacemakers are exposed to the ever present threat of hackers.