Hackers Want To Give You A Heart Attack -- Literally?

from the talk-about-malicious! dept

Thu, Feb 24th 2005 10:13am — Mike Masnick

It seems to be based on no actually information other than a "well, in some certain cases, maybe, it could sorta happen," but here's an article saying that hackers may try to reprogram your pacemaker. A few years back, pacemakers were approved to transmit data wirelessly -- which seems like a good thing. A doctor can more closely monitor how a patient is doing. More recently, studies showed that WiFi doesn't appear to interfere with pacemakers. However, this article still wants you to be very, very afraid. They admit that the data is encrypted, but say there's still some possibility that they could hack into your heart. This might be a situation where someone should step back and ask what's the real likelihood of this happening?

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8 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 24 Feb 2005 @ 10:32am

What's the likelyhood of this happening?
I suppose it depends on whether the pacemaker's embedded in my grandfather or Dick Cheney...
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dorpus, 24 Feb 2005 @ 4:30pm

Jesus Christ
I just almost had a heart attack right now, because I was in the bathroom for 10 minutes, then when I turned on the shower, the cat suddenly jumped out of the cabinet. How many Americans are killed by their cats every year?
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Oliver Wendell Jones, 25 Feb 2005 @ 6:21am

Re: Jesus Christ
How many Americans are killed by their cats every year?

Until one kills you, Dorpus? Not enough...
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2005 @ 9:22am

Re: Jesus Christ
AMEN !
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jan 2006 @ 12:46am

Re: Jesus Christ
some ppl say curiosity killed the cat. i think the curious cat killed the person.
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Weird Guy, 15 Mar 2006 @ 11:44pm

I jumped out of the cabinet when my cat was in the room and killed it
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Mar 2006 @ 8:06pm

My Cabinet jumped out of my cat when the shower turned me on...
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zainab, 11 Jul 2006 @ 10:47am

murder in a park
i want to give a story about murder in a park
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