I saw this little article and it rang some bells since my sister Whit actually has one of these defibrillators. Apparently there are a few brands of these things that transmit wirelessly to a bedside device that then sends the data to the doctor every day. Naturally some folks figured out a way to snoop that transmission, and even send commands back to the device. The logical end point is to cause the defibrillator to malfunction, which they claim is possible to do. The other side of this is the range on these things is very short, meaning you would sort of need a hacker to be camped out sitting on your chest with his laptop for this to actually work. If you have ever seen the average hacker, these guys aren’t generally your fit types. I’m thinking that the average heart patient would probably be squashed flat by the hacker’s ample buttocks. Just a hunch. Besides with the amount of time this would require, you would hear the labored breathing, machine gun typing and cheetos munching and wake up anyway.
So, Whit I think you are probably safe for now. If you are still worried, here are some of the best ways to set traps to foil malicious hackers trying to upload code to your heart.
Pringles cans left on the floor will probably stop them for a while since they need to bend over to reach them, and then eat them. Always leave the Pringles cans lying down, since that’s an extra few inches to the floor that most nerds just don’t have the flexibility to do. This always works because nerds love Pringles, and the empty cans have lots of nerdly uses too. Serve with cans of Red Bull. Another thing that will stop them cold is a flashing 12:00 on the VCR (which is surprisingly vanishing from the living room landscape, have you noticed?) they are physically compelled to stop and fix it. Maybe a partially disassembled toy robot, oh man, that’s like crack for nerds. This should give you enough time to actually wake up in the morning and gently shoo the nerds out the door with a broom. They will take the robot and the chips, but will have completely forgotten they were actually trying to hack into your heart.Â
Problem solved.
Man, that’s incredible! I think this proves that technology is not always for the better. Just because someone can figure out how to hack a defib, doesn’t mean they should. I mean, some things are just wrong. Here’s hoping my people would never be so heartless, or act in as shocking a manner. Geez.