Insulin pump hack delivers fatal dosage over the air

[Alloneword]

I'm not 100% sure if this affects people in the UK but worrying no matter what.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/27/fatal_insulin_pump_attack/


All1

 

[HOBIE]

Hope the person has a bad FALL off HIGH CLIFF ! 😡

 

[Northerner]

I believe this was reported months ago and now seems to be doing the rounds again - seems to happen a lot with diabetes-related 'news', I've noticed!

 

[Mark T]

Hope the person has a bad FALL off HIGH CLIFF ! 😡

I don't know - they have demonstrated that there is a huge security hole. The question is whether the manufacturers have taken any of the research seriously. I'd hope that the latest pumps don't have this issue and only older devices that are impacted.

It's pretty poor design and a lack of due diligence on the part of the manufacturers.

A few might argue that you shouldn't need to put security on an insulin pump - but the same argument could be used to argue that you shouldn't need to fit locks to doors 😉

 

[Alloneword]

A few might argue that you shouldn't need to put security on an insulin pump

To be honest i'd go along with that but if you find a pumper who uses it I guess it's a nice way of getting red of em 😱

All1

 

[trophywench]

Hmm my over fertile brain wonders whether the hacker has holidayed in the UK whilst he was testing this, since two people on another forum have related unexplained 'dumping' of insulin by their pumps.

They both landed up in hospital on glucose drips ........ bloody lucky both recognised it soon enough as a really really serious problem and were able to get to (different) A&E's PDQ.

However, I'm sorry to say this - of course, whlst nobody has any reason not to believe the individuals and lots of reason to believe em - anything said by anyone on any forum is 'hearsay' innit? - So blooming unsettling. Esp when you have a pump that has Bluetooth .......

 

[Unicornz]

What I'm wondering at the moment is that - IF - something like this were to happen, wouldn't you get the usual bleeps or vibrations to let you know you are going though a bolus procedure? Would you be 'warned' that a bolus is started when something like this happens or would they be able to do it completely unnoticed?